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LINGARD'S 



CVj 



fx%tix% ai (fogiirai* 



ABRIDGED; 



WITH A CONTINUATION, FROM 1688 TO 1854. 



By JAMES BURKE, Esq., A.B. 



TO WHICH IS PREFIXED A 



U«ir at gr. I ragartr, ani Ipittpal Ita, 



By M. J. KERNE Y, A.M. 



SECOND EDITION. 




BALTIMORE: 

PUBLISHED BY JOHN MURPHY & CO. 



No. 178 MARKET STREET. 

PITTSBURG....GEORGE QUIGLEY. 

1855. 



3\fc2>* 



\% e - 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S54, by 

JOHN MURPHY & CO. 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Maryland. 



fS 



JJ 



PREFACE. 



Dr. Lingard's History of England is so well known, and its 
reputation so universally established, that it is deemed unnecessary 
to enter into any lengthened commentary on its merits. 

For more than a quarter of a century, this work has been 
before the public ; it has passed through the fiery ordeal of hostile 
criticism, yet not a single statement, penned by its author, has been 
proved to be erroneous. The ease and classical purity of its style 
has ever been admired; but in all the higher and more essential 
qualifications of history, in full and impartial details, in clear and 
methodical arrangement, in deep and patient research, it stands with- 
out a rival. 

No writer ever labored with greater assiduity than Dr. Lingard 
to dispel the prejudices of his countrymen, and to diffuse the light 
of truth over the annals of his country. Hume may please, and 
Macaulay may fascinate, but if we seek to gain a correct view of 
those events which lie far back in the dim vista of English history ; 
if we desire to be fully instructed in the rise, progress, and develop- 
ment of those institutions which form the basis of the British em- 
pire, or seek to gather reliable information in relation to the religious 
institutions of the country in former ages, we must turn to the 
truthful pages of Lingard. 

Previously to the appearance of his great work, the people of 
England were comparatively strangers to the true history of their 
own country. The public mind had been perverted by the fictions 
of former writers ; it had drunk deeply at the polluted fountains of 
historical knowledge ; but it remain^for Dr. Lingard to expose the 
errors of previous historians, to do*$>.y their theories, and to dis- 
sipate the prejudice of ages. 

Not only was Lingard a truthful historian himself, but he pointed 



* PREFACE. 

jut to others the duties of a historian, as the reader may learn from 
the following extract given in his own emphatic language: 

" Admit no statement merely upon trust, but weigh with care the value of the 
authorities on which you rely, and watch with jealousy the secret workings of 
your own personal feelings and prepossessions. Sueh vigilance is a matter of 
necessity to every writer of history, if he aspire to the praise of truthfulness and 
impartiality. He must withdraw himself aloof from the scenes which he de- 
scribes, and view with the coolness of an unconcerned spectator the events 
which pass before his eyes, holding with a steady hand the balance between 
contending parties, and allotting to the more prominent characters that mea- 
sure of praise or dispraise which he conscientiously believes to be their due. 
Otherwise, he will be continually tempted to make an unfair use of the privi- 
lege of the historian; he will sacrifice the interests of truth to the interests of 
party, national, religious, or political. His narrative may still be brilliant, 
attractive, picturesque ; but the pictures which he paints will derive their co- 
loring from the jaundiced eye of the artist himself, and will, therefore, bear 
no very faithful resemblance to the realities of life and fact." 

The work, however, in its original form, is too voluminous for general 
circulation, and thus limited in the sphere of its usefulness. A com- 
pendious edition has been frequently called for; at length the deside- 
ratum has been supplied. The following Abridgment, which has 
been carefully prepared from the latest edition of the larger work, 
published under the supervision of its distinguished author, will be 
found to contain all the important and most interesting portions of the 
original, while its price will place it within the reach of all classes in 
the community. It embodies the spirit, and retains the language of 
the original, except when the change of a word was found necessary 
for a proper connection of the different parts. 

The Continuation has been compiled by an author long and favor- 
ably known to literature. It passes over a period fraught with 
events of the deepest interest, and faithfully and impartially records 
the most important transactions. 

The Sketch of the British Constitution, the Abstract of Geogra- 
phy of England in Saxon times, the List of Eminent Natives, and 
the Marginal Notes, will add much to the interest of the work, and 
will be found useful to the reader by way of reference. 

Baltimore, January 1, 1855j^ 



CONTENTS. 



Sketch of the Constitution of the British 
Empire page 15 

Distinguished Natives of Great Britain and 
Ireland I9 



Geography of England under the Saxons... 21 

Kings and Queens of England 22 

The present Royal Family 23 

Memoir of Dr. Lingard. 



CHAPTER I.— Roman Britain. 
Ctssar twice invades Britain — The British Tribes— Their Manners — Religion — 
Government — Gradual Conquest of Britain by the Romans — Its stato under 
the Emperors— Conversion of the Natives to Christianity — The Romans 
abandon the Island : A. C. 55 to A. D. 449. 



Principal Events: Cresar invades Bri- 
tain and returns to Gaul page 25 

Ccesar invades Britain a second time 26 

Manners and Customs of the Ancient Bri- 
tons 26 

The Tin Mines, or Tin Islands 27 

Religion of the Natives: their Mode of 

Worship 23 

Druids; their Power 29 

The Bards; their Employment 29 

The Form of Government 29 

Conduct of Augustus and Tiberius 3D 

Foolish Conduct of Caligula 30 

Britain again Invaded : Caractacus de- 
feated and led captive to Rome 30 

The Isle of Anglesey invaded : the Druids 

destroyed 31 



Boadicea : her heroic conduct 32 

Exertions of Agricola in Britain 32 

Invasion of the Caledonians: the vallum of 

Antoninus 33 

The Emperor Servetus visits Britain 33 

The Franks and Saxons 33 

Constantius opposes the Usurpation of Al- 

lectns 31 

Christianity introduced into Britain 31 

What we may believe concerning the Intro- 
duction of Christianity 35 

Edicts published in Britain against Chris- 
tianity by Dioclesian, &e 36 

Constantine becomes head of Roman Empire 37 

Ilengist and Horsa aid the Britons 33 



CHAPTER II.— Anglo-Saxons. 
Tho Saxons found eight distinct Kingdoms — The Natives retire to the 
Western Coast — The reigns of the Saxon Bretwaldas, and of other Saxon 
Kings, down to Alfred — Account of the writers Bedo and Alcuin — Founda- 
tion of the English Monarchy under Egbert. A. D. 449 to 871. 

Principal Events: Rupture between the 

British Kings and the Saxon Chieftains : 

Battle at Aylesford 39 

Cerdic extends the Saxon power 39 

Eight Saxon Kingdoms formed : the Bret- 

walda 40 



Pope Gregory sends Augustine to convert 

the Saxons 40 

Laws of Etlielbert 41 

Bode and Alcuin : their Literary Produc- 
tions 42 

Egbert unites the Saxon Kingdoms into one 42 



CHAPTER III.— Alfred the Great. 
His Birth — Education — Accession to the Throne — His Contests with the 
Danes — His Reverses — His Success — His Victories — His Labors in favor 
of Literature— His Death. A. D. 849 to 901. 



Principal Events: Alfred born at Want- 
age 43 

His early Education limited 44 

Alfred is called to the Throne : the Danes 44 

Alfred secludes himself in Somersetshire... 45 
He defeats the Danes : builds Castles and 

Fortifies the Coast 46 

His success over the Danes by sea 47 



Alfred remedies the evils that had fol- 
lowed tho Invasion of the Danes 48 

His Severity against Corrupt Judges 4S 

His Efforts to Revive Literature 49 

He Translates several Works: Arrange- 
ment of his Time 50 

Hastings Invades Kent : is Defeated 51 

His Death 51 



CHAPTER IV.— Anglo-Saxons Continued. 
Edward — Athelstan— Edmund— Edred — Edwy — Edward the Martyr 
red— Edmund Ironsides. A. D. 901 to 1016. 

Principal Events: Edward enters Mar- 
oia, and takes Elfwina prisoner 

Athelstan called the first Monarch of Eng 



-Ethel- 



laud . 



Edmund— Edred— Edwy 53 



Edgar recalls Dunstan 

The Story of Elf rida— Edward Martyr. 
Ethelred : he orders a Massacre of 
Danes 



1 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER V.— The Danes. 



Canute— Harold Harefoot— Hardicanutc. A. D. 1016 to 1042. 

Hardicanute acknow- 
571 



Principal Events: Canute labors to win 
the affection of the English rage 



Harold Harefoot- 
ledged King 



CHAPTER VI.— Saxon Line Restored. 
Edward the Confessor— Harold the Second. A. D. 1042 to 1066. 



Principal Events : Edward the Confes- 
sor called to the Throne : he marries 

Editha 59 

Remarkable Death of Godwin 60 

Character of Edward 61 

Harold the Second proclaimed King 62 



Harold's army before the battle of Hastings 63 

William's Army 64 

Battle of Hastings 64 

Bravery of William and Harold — Death 

of Harold 65 

Number of the Slain 66 



CHAPTER VII. — Manners and Customs of the Anglo-Saxons. 



Principal Events: Saxon Institutions 67 

Feudal System introduced into England.... 67 

Distinctions of Rank — Thanes and Reeves 68 
Proceedings before Anglo-Saxon Tribunals 

—Criminal Prosecutions 69 



Purgation by Oath— Ordeals by Water and 

Fire 70 

Crimes of Homicide and Theft: their Pu- 
nishment 71 

Slavery — Population of Cities 72 

The Shire-reeve— the Wic-reeve: his Duty 73 

CHAPTER VIII.— William the First. 
William is crowned — Goes to Normandy — Returns to England — Subjects and 
oppresses the Natives — Insurrection of the Normans — Rebellion of Robert, 
his son — His War with France — His Death and Character. A. D. 1066 to 1087. 

PrincipalEvents: William begins hisreign 74 Robert declares War againsthis Father 77 

Massacre of the Teople on the day of his William's Death and Character 78 

Coronation 75 His respect for Religious Institutions 79 

William suppresses the Revolt in Nor- 
mandy 76 

CHAPTER IX.— The Feudal System. 
Military Tenant — His Duty — The nature of his Fees — Fees of Inheritance — 
The grievance of Fees — The restrictions when the heirs were Females — 
Sources of the King's Revenue. 

Two grievances attended the descent of 

Fees S3 

Restriction when the Heirs were Females 84 

The King's Revenue : Domesday Book 85 



Principal Events: The Oath and Duty 

of Military Tenant 80 

His Duty in time of War : nature of his Fees 81 

The Heir required to pay heriot and relief.. 82 

CHAPTER X.— William the Second. 
William succeeds — His Wars with his Brother — He invades Scotland — He per- 
secutes Archbishop Anselm — His Death and Character. A. D. 10S7 to 1100. 



Principal Events: William hastens to 

England 86 

Odo forms a party in favor of Robert 87 

Robert solicits the aid of France 87 



The Crusades— William's Wars in Scotland 88 
Anselm made Archbishop of Canterbury ... 88 
William is Killed by an Arrow : his Cha- 
racter 89 



CHAPTER XL— Henry the First. 

Accession of Henry — England invaded by Robert — Henry invades Normandy 
—Takes Robert prisoner. A. D. 1100 to 1135. 

Principal Events: Coronation of Henry 91 

Henry marries Matilda, daughter of Mal- 
colm 92 

Robert invades England: Henry meets him 

in conference 93 

Robert made prisoner by his brother 93 

Dispute concerning the Right of Investiture 94 

The Dispute finally settled 95 

An end put to the hostilities 96 

The Shipwreck and Loss of his Children.... 97 

The news conveyed to Henry 98 

The marriage between William and Sibilla 

opposed by Henry 98 

The Earl of Flanders assassinated in Church 99 

Henry marries Adelais 99 



Battle of Alost, and Death of William of 

Flanders 101 

Death of Robert, Duke of Normandy 101 

Henry's Death and Character 102 

His cruelty towards Berre, the poet, and 

others 103 

The Earl of Mellent: the King's distrust 

of the Natives 105 

His Wealth— Literature— Lanfranc and 

Anselm 106 

The First Schools. Ancient Seminaries: 

Professors 107 

JotTrid establishes a School at Cambridge... 108 
Origin of Romance 1U9 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XII.— Stephen. 

Accession of Stephen-Invasion of the Scots— Battle of the Standard— Ma- 
tilda lands in England-Stephen is taken prisoner, and released— Matilda 
leaves the kingdom— Henry asserts the claim of his Mother— Death of Ste- 
phen. A. D. 1135 to 1154 



Principal Events: Stephen seizes the 

Crown rage 110 

He. lands in England : is crowned 1U 

King of Scotland invades England 112 

Energy of Thurstan 1]'- 

Battle of the " Standard" 1|3 

David concludes peace H* 



Standard of Matilda unfurled : Stephen 

taken prisoner 114 

Arrogant conduct of Matilda 115 

Stephen lays siege to Oxford: the flight of 

Matilda \\<> 

Henry, son of Matilda, lands in England... 117 
Stephen appoints Henry his successor : he 
dies U7 



CHAPTER XIII. — Henry the Second. 



I 



Accession of Henry II.— The rise of Thomas a Becket-War in Wales- 
Dispute between Henry and the Primate— The Assassination of the Arch- 
bishop—Conquest of Ireland— Rebellion of the King's Sons— His Death 



and Character. A. D. 1154 to 1189. 

Principal Events: Henry lands in Eng- 

land: is crowned at Westminster 11" 

Nicholas Breakspeare • ••• }^\ 

Thomas a Becket: account of his early life 120 
He is appointed Archbishop of Canterbury 121 
Ecclesiastical Courts : Council at Clarendon 123 
The principal Articles of the Constitution 

of Clarendon 1-3 

Becket repents of his conduct 124 

Henry determines on the ruin of the Bishop 125 
The Archbishop retires to France: visits 

the Pope 125 

Henry becomes reconciled to the Arch- 

bishop ............... 1-7 

Four Knights resolve to murder the Fri- 

mate 127 

The fortitude displayed by the Archbishop 128 
His heroic conduct : bis assassination 130 



Henry, on hearing of the Primate's death... 131 

Ireland: St. Patrick : Irish Literature 152 

Manners and Customs of the Natives 13.5 

The Clergy of Ireland 134 

Reasons to iustify the Invasions l-« 

PontifT assents to the King's request 135 

Dermot: O'Ruare • I™ 

Landing of Fitz-Stephen: Henry's conduct Idb 

Conduct of the Irish Bishops 137 

Henry has recourse to Pope Adrian's letter 138 

The quarrels in Henry's family . 139 

Henry makes a pilgrimage to the tomb of 

Becket If 

Treaty between Henry and his Sons 14, 

The Throne of Jerusalem: the fall of the 



city . 



142 



Sickness and Death of Henry 143 

His Character 144 



CHAPTER XIV.— Richard the First. 

The succession of Richard— Massacre of the Jews— Crusade— Conquest of the 
Island of Cyprus— His Exploits in Palestine— His return and Captivity— 
Troubles in England— The King is ransomed— His Death. A. D. Ilb9 to 
1199. 

Principal Events: Richard prepares for 
the Crusades 14o 

Richard and Philip : the siege of Acre 147 

Acre surrenders : the massacre of the 



hostages.. 



The object of the Crusaders 149 

Richard falls into the hands of the Emperor 

of Germanv lot) 

Richard is wounded : his Death and Cha- 

151 



racter. 



CHAPTER XV.— John. 



The Accession 



of John— Captivity and Death of his Nephew— Dispute with 
Pope Innocent-Interdict-The King's submission— Magna Chnrta-Civil 
War— The offer of the Crown to Louis— The Death of John. A. D. 1199 to 



1216. 

Principal Events: Hostilities between 
France and England •■•••• 154 

Arthur taken prisoner, and supposed to 
have been assassinated 155 

The Kingdom placed under an interdict.... 15fi 

The French King invades Flanders 157 



The interdict revoked: the battle at Bou- 

vines "' 

Maena Charta obtained: the articles of 

this Charter V>""~ in 

The Charter annulled bv the Pontiff. 161 

War between John and his Barons '*'J 

The Death of John: his Character Ibi 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XVI.— Henry tiie Third. 

Coronation of Henry — Departure of Louis — War with France — Controversy 
between Henry and his Barons — Battle of Lewis — Victory at Evetham — 
Death of the King. A. D. 1216 to 1272. 

Principal Events: Henry is crowned. .page 166 

He assembles a great Council 168 

Henry invades France : Christian hierarchy 169 I 

He marries Eleanor: the "mad Parliament" 170 

Civil War: Battle of Lewis: the King ' 

taken prisoner 173 

CHAPTER XVIL— Edward the First. 

Edward returns from Palestine — Conquers Wales— Hostilities with Scotland — 
William Wallace — Conquers Scotland — Royal Exactions — Opposition of the 
Clergy and Barons — Bruce claims the Crown of Scotland — Edward prepares 
to invade Scotland— His Death. A. D. 1271 to 1307. 



Prince Edward escapes: Battle of Eve- 
sham: Death of Leicester 175 

Infirmities and Death of Henry 176 

His Character 177 



Principal Events: Edward is wounded 
in his tent 17S 

Edward returns to England : War with 
Wales 179 

Wales finally subdued 180 

Edward is arbitrator between the Kings of 
France, Arragon, and Sicily 1S1 

Baliol and Macduff. 182 

Engagement between the Norman and Eng- 
lish fleets 1S3 

The Scottish Barons assert their indepen- 
dence 1S1 

Baliol deprived of his crown: William 
Wallace 1S5 



Success of Wallace 186 

Wallace is defeated 187 

Wallace taken prisoner and executed : his 

Character 188 

Oppressive Taxation 189 

National Bemoustrances : Edward com- 
pelled to yield 190 

Edward meets his Parliament: grants every 

demand 191 

Scotland again free 192 

Comyn killed by Bruce 103 

Death of Edward : his Character 194 



CHAPTER XVIIL— Edward the Second. 

Coronation of Edward — War in Scotland— Battle at Bannockburn — Bruce in- 
vades Ireland — Truce with Scotland — War with his Barons — The Queen 
makes war on the King — The King is deposed and murdered. A. D. 1307 
to 1327. 

The Spencers banished 203 

Leicester put to death : Edward again in- 
vades Scotland 20-1 

The Queen visits France : her intrigues 

with Mortimer 205 

Isabella lands: Edward retires 207 

Edward taken prisoner 'Jn7 

Edward is murdered in Berkeley Castle.... 208 
The Order of the Knights Templars 210 



Principal Events: Gaveston 195 

Coronation of Edward : Gaveston in Ire- 
land 196 

Edward invades Scotland 197 

Death of Gaveston 19S 

Battle of Bannockburn 199 

The Scots invade Ireland 200 

Truce between Edward and Bruce: the 
King's letter to the Pope 202 

CHAPTER XIX.— Edward the Third. 

Campaign against the Scots— Death of the Earl of Kent — Fall and Execution 
of Mortimer — Edward claims the Crown of France — Expedition to Flanders 
— Truce — Renewal of the War; Victory at Creci — Renewal of the War 
with France — Victory of Poitiers — Death of the Black Prince — Death of 
Edward. A. D. 1327 to 1377. 



Principal Events : The Truce with Scot- 
land broken 211 

Edward prepares for War: peace con- 
cluded 212 

Edward resumes the reins of Government 213 
Execution of Mortimer: Edward and Baliol 214 
Battle of Hallidon Hill : Baliol restored to 

the throne 215 

Edward invades France 217 

The eve of the Battle of Creci 218 

Battle of Creci 219 

Edward meets his Son after the battle 221 

Siege of Calais 221 

Surrender of the City: the conduct of St. 
Pierre 222 



Influence of the Roman Pontiff. 

War with France renewed: the Scots in- 
vade England 

The armies meet near Poitiers 

Battle of Poitiers 

Valor of the French king ; he is taken pri- 
soner 

The Conduct of the Conqueror 

Edward again invades France: peace con- 
cluded 

Charles recovers his possessions: Death of 
the Black Prince 

Death of Edward : his Character 

Wychffe 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XX.— Richard the Second. 

Coronation of Richard — Insurrection of the people — Wj'cliffe — Invasion of 
Scotland — The King goes to Ireland — The despotism of Richard — He pro- 
ceeds to Ireland a second time — Henry of Lancaster rebels — The King is 
made prisoner and deposed. A. D. 1377 to 1399. 

Ireland at this period 247 

Richard lands in Ireland 249 

Disciples of Wycliffe : Riohard marries Isa- 
bella 250 

Despotism of Richard 251 



Principal Events : Richard is crowned... 235 

The Insurrection of Wat Tyler 237 

Conference at Smithfield : Death of Tyler 23S 
Competitors for the Papacy : History of 

Wycliffe 240 

Richard invades Scotland 241 

Contest with the Parliament 243 

The King and the Judges 244 

Earls of Arundel and Warwick agree to 

depose Richard 245 



Insurrection in England 253 

The King is taken prisoner 254 

The King betrayed 255 

Henry assumes the title of king 256 

Character of Richard 257 



CHAPTER XXL— Henry the Fourth. 

Coronation of the King — The Death of Richard — Henry invades Scotland — 
Rebellion of the Percies, and that of Glendower — Transactions with France 
—The Death of Henry. A. D. 1399 to 1413. 



Principal Events: The New Parliament 258 

Richard imprisoned for life 259 

The mysterious death of Richard 260 

Henry invades Scotland and Wales 261 

Battle of Homilden 262 



Battle between Henry and Hotspur 264 

Fate of Northumberland and Bardorlf. 265 

War against Glendower 266 

Prince Henry and Judge Gaseoigne 267 

Death of Henry : first punishment for heresy 269 



CHAPTER XXIL— Henry the Fifth. 
The Succession of Henry — Invasion of France — Battle of Azincourt — Second 
Invasion of France — Made Regent of France — His success in Franco— His 
Death and Character. A. D. 1413 to 1422. 



Danger of Henry 2 7 6 

Battle of Azincourt 277 

Henry again invades France 278 

The Scots invade England 278 

Henry's success in France : he returns to 

England 279 

Henry's Death: his Character 280 



Principal Events : Henry ascends the 

throne 270 

Sir John Oldcastle: Henry revives his 

claim to France 271 

Henry invades France 272 

The village of Azineuurt 273 

The English previous to the battle 274 

Disposition of the French troops 275 

CHAPTER XXIIL— Henry the Sixth. 

Government during the minority — Siege of Orleans — Joan d'Arc — Charles is 
crowned at Rheims and Henry at Paris — The King's Marriage — Loss of the 
French Provinces — Cade's Insurrections — Tho Duke of York is declared 
heir to the throne— He is killed in battle — His son Edward is proclaimed 
king. A. D. 1422 to 1461. 

Principal Events: Henry ascends the Marriage of Henry • 289 

throne 282 French Kingreeovers his possessions 290 

Joan d'Arc 283 Insurrection of John Cade 291 

She is admitted into Orleans 285 The conduct of the Duke of York 292 

Charles under her directions proceeds to The King is taken prisoner 293 

Rheims 286 The Queen assembles an army 294 

Death of Joan d'Arc 287 Henry ends his reign 295 

Henry VI. crowned in Paris 2S8 

CHAPTER XXIV.— Edward the Fourth. 
Misfortunes of tho Lancastrians — Henry VI. is made prisoner — Insurrection — 
Edward is made prisoner — His release — Clarence and Warwick leave the 
kingdom, and return — Edward is expelled, and Henry restored — Edward re- 
turns — His victory at Barnet — Death of Henry — War with France — Death 
of the King. A. D. 1461 to 14S3. 



Principal Events: Battle of Towton 295 

Misfortunes and privations of the Queen... 296 

Henry betrayed and taken prisoner 297 

The two royal prisoners 298 

Margaret reconciled with Warwick 299 

Henry released from the Tower 3U0 



Edward lands in England 300 

Battles of Barnet and Tewksbury 301 

Death of Henry 302 

Death of the Duke of Clarence 303 

Death of Edward : his Character 304 



10 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXV.— Edward the Fifth. 

The conduct of the Duke of Gloucester — The Duke is made Protector— 
Penance of Jane Shore — He aspires to the Crown — The Crown is offered to 
him — Ho accepts it. A. D. 1483. 

Principal Events: Order for the Coro- | Penance of Jane Shore 307 

nation page 306] Gloucester aims at the Crown 307 

CHAPTER XXVL— Richard the Third. 

Coronation of Richard — The death of his two nephews — Conspiracy against 
him — He raises an army against the Earl of Richmond — Is killed in the 
battle of Bosworth. A. D. 1483 to 1489. 

Principal Events: Coronation of Richard 309 I King alarmed: the Death of his Queen 311 

The murder of the two Princes 310 Battle of Bosworth, and Death of Richard... 312 

Conspiracy in favor of Richmond 310 | 



CHAPTER XXVIL— Henry the Seventh. 

The Coronation of Henry — The Settlement of the Crown — Insurrection in 
favor of the pretended Earl of Warwick — War in Bretagne — Imposture of 
Perkin Warbeck — Marriage and Death of Prince Arthur — Henry's Death 
and Character. A. D. 1485 to 1509. 

Anne of Bretagne: Story of Parken War- 
beck 31S 

Warbeck surrenders : his execution 320 

Truce with Scotland: Marriage of Prince 
Arthur 322 

Death of Henry: his Character 324 



Principal Events : Coronation of Henry 313 

The settlement of the crown 314 

Pretended Earl of Warwick 315 

The Battle of Stoke: Court of the Star- 
chamber established 316 



CHAPTER XXVIII.— Henry the Eighth. 

The Accession and Marriage of Henry — War with France — Defeat of the Scots 
at Flodden — The Rise and Power of Wolsey — Execution of the Duke of 
Buckingham — Wolsey aspires to the Papacy — Peace with France — Origin 
of the Reformation — Henry writes against Luther — Is declared Defender of 
the Faith — Anne Boleyn — Disgrace of Wolsey — The rise of Cromwell — The 
King marries Anno Boleyn — Cranmer — The King assumes the title of 
Head of the Church — Papal Bull against Henry — Dissolution of the Monas- 
teries — Death of Queen Catherine — Marriage with Anne of Cleves— Fall of 
Cromwell — Marriage with Catherine Howard — The King's last illness — His 
Death and Character. A. D. 1509 to 1542. 



Principal Events: Accession of Henry... 325 

Henry invades France 326 

Battle of Flodden Field, and death of James 326 

Siege of Tournay 327 

The rise of Wolsey 328 

Wealth and power of Wolsey 330 

Charles V. visits England 332 

Death of the Duke of Buckingham 333 

War between England and France 334 

France makes a treaty with Desmond 335 

Indulgences : Luther attacks the doctrine 

of indulgences 337 

Deo publishes a bull 338 

Proceedings against Luther : Decree against 

him 330 

Henry and Wolsey oppose the new doctrine 340 
Henry is styled " Defender of the Faith"... 341 

Henry falls in love with Anne Boleyn 342 

Henry determines to marry Anne 343 

Progress of the divorce 344 

Disgrace of Wolsey 345 

He is accused of high treason 347 

His illness and death 348 

Rise of Thomas Cromwell 349 



Henry privately marries Anne 350 

Cranmer made Archbishop of York 350 

Fisher and Sir Thomas More oppose the 

King's supremacy 352 

Fate of Fisher and More 353 

Dissolution of the Monasteries 354 

Death of Queen Catharine 354 

Anne Boleyn loses the affections of the King 355 

Anne is arrested and sent to the Tower 356 

She is executed : Henry marries Jane Sey- 
mour 357 

Suppression of the remaining Monasteries 358 

The Book of Articles 359 

Religious persecution 360 

The Statute of the "Six Articles" 361 

Henry celebrates his triumph over the 

court of Rome 362 

Henry marries Anne of Cleves 362 

The fall of Cromwell 363 

Catherine Howard raised to the throne 364 

Ireland: Affairs of Scotland 365 

Henry marries Catherine Parr 367 

The King's last illness : his Death : his 
Character 36S 



CONTENTS. 



11 



CHAPTER XXIX.— Edward the Sixth. 
Hertford made Protector— Progress of the Reformation— The Lord Admiral 
arrested and beheaded— Troubles with Lady Mary— Foreign Preachers- 
Somerset arrested and executed— Death of the King. A. D. 1547 to lo43. 

The fall of the Protector 377 

Persecution of Lady Mary 378 

Persecution on account of religion 380 



Principal Events: Hertford made Pro- 
tector page 370 

Death of the King of France 371 

Proceedings in religion 372 

Statutes against mendicants 373 

Gardiner committed to the Tower 37* 

Bill for the marriage of priests 375 

The ambition and execution of. 376 



Statutes to enforce the new worship 381 

Edward's illness: Mary and Elizabeth ex- 
cluded by will 382 

Death of Edward: his Character 381 



CHAPTER XXX.— Mary. 

Lady Jane Grey proclaimed Queen— Execution of Northumberland— The 
Queen restores the ancient service— Elizabeth conforms— Insurrection- 
Elizabeth sent to the Tower— Mary's marriage with Philip— Reconciliation 
with Rome— Persecution of the Reformers— Departure of Philip— Death ot 
Gardiner— War with France— Victory of St. Quintin's— Loss of Calais- 
Death and Character of Mary. A. D. 1553 to 1558. 

Reunion with Rome 398 

Embassy to Rome 400 

Origin of persecution: the tirst victims 401 

Execution of Latimer and Ridley 102 



Principal Events: Endeavors to conceal 

Edward's death 386 

Lady Jane Grey proclaimed 387 

Triumph of Mary 388 

Coronation of Mary : Trial of the prisoners 390 
Mary determines "to restore the Catholic 

worship 391 

Elizabeth conforms 392 

Cardinal Pole appointed legate 393 

Mary determines to marry Philip of Spain 394 

Execution of Dudley and his wife 395 

Elizabeth committed to the Tower 396 

Marriage of Mary and Philip 397 



Recantations of Cranmer : his execution.... 4H4 

Reflections on the persecutions 105 

Death of Gardiner : Mary restores the 

church property 406 

Cleoburg's conspiracy 407 

Philip returns to England 408 

Loss of Calais 409 

Mary's last sickness and death : her Cha- 
racter 



410 



CHAPTER XXXL— Elizabeth. 

Accession of Elizabeth— Abolition of Catholic worship— War in Scotland— Re- 
turn of Mary Stuart— Elizabeth's suitors— Penal statutes— Thirty-nine Arti- 
cles—Queen of Scotland marries Darnley— Assassination of Rizzio: of 
Darnley— Mary marries Bothwell— The misfortunes of Mary— She seeks an 
asylum in England— Persecution of the Puritans : the Catholics— Plots for 
the liberation of Mary Stuart— Proceedings against Mary— Her trial and 
execution— Philip of Spain determines to invade England— The sailing of 
the Armada— Transactions in Ireland— Rebellion of Tyrone— Declining 
health of the Queen — Her Death and character. A. D. 1558 to 1603. 

Laws against Catholics 439 

Severity against the Anabaptists 441 

Project in favor of Mary: it fails 442 

Mary's letter to Elizabeth 443 

Severity against the Catholics 414 

Treaty between Elizabeth and James 445 

Marv arraigned for trial 446 

Elizabeth signs the warrant for Mary's ex- 
ecution 44! 



Principal Events: Elizabeth ascends the 

throne 413 

Coronation of Elizabeth 414 

Mary Stuart: she returns to Scotland 415 

Private history of Elizabeth 416 

Religious wars: Penal Acts passed 418 

The Thirty-nine Articles 419 

Mary marries Darnley 421 

Elisabeth desires to marry : Assassination 

of Rizzio 422 

The conspiracy suppressed 423 

Darnley blown up in the Kirk of Field 425 

Mary taken prisoner by Bothwell, and com- 
pelled to marry him 426 

Mary imprisoned 427 

Mary escapes 128 

Battle of Langside : conduct of Elizabeth... 429 

Publication of the Papal Bull 431 

Penal Acts passed 433 

High Commission Court 433 

The Duke of Norfolk beheaded 434 

Massacre of St. Bartholomew's day 435 

Elizabeth urged to put Mary to death 436 

State of Ireland 137 



Night previous to her execution 450 

Mary's progress to the scaffold 451 

Her execution 452 

The conduct of James on learning the exe- 
cution of his mother 453 

Slave-trade commences 454 

Contemplated invasion of England 454 

Armada dispersed and returns to Spain 456 

Penalties against the Catholics 457 

Expedition to destroy the forts of Spain 459 

Ireland at this period: Death of Perrot 460 

Battle of Blackwater: victory of O'Neil.... 461 
The Spaniards subdued: O'Neil submits.... 463 

Elizabeth's last illness and death 464 

Her Character 46o 



12 



CONTENTS. 



—James the First. 
-Severity against the Catholics — The 
he King's Favorites — Disgrace of Coke 
of the Catholics — The Puritans — Bacon 
—Marriage treaty with France — Death 

Additional laws against the Catholics 482 

The King's favorites 484 

Sale of offices 485 

Disgrace of Coke: Armenius and Vorstius 4s0 

Penal laws against the Irish Catholics 488 

Catalogue of grievances of the Catholics.... 488 
New proclamation against the Catholic 

clergy 490 

Attempts to extirpate the Catholic worship 4'JO 
Sir Walter Raleigh: his imprisonment, 

trial, and execution 492 

Fall of Lord Bacon 49,'i 

Death of James : his Character 4% 

CHAPTER XXXIIL— Charles the First. 
The King's marriage — He meets his Parliament — War with France — Third 
Parliament — Assassination of Buckingham — Discontent in England and Ire- 
land — New Service-book — Covenant — Riots — Impeachment of Stafford — His 
Trial and Execution— Rebellion in Ireland— Remonstrance of the Commons 
— Impeachment of the Bishops — Impeachment of Members — Parliament 
levies an army — Charles sets up his standard — Battles of Edgehill and 
Newbury— Solemn League— Battle of Marston Moor— Defeat at Naseby— 
Surrenders to the Scottish Army — Is delivered up by the Scots — The King 
escapes — He is again taken — His Trial and Execution. A. D. 1625 to 1649. 

Royal Standard unfurled 519 

Both parties appeal to the sword 520 

Battle at Keynton 521 



CHAPTER XXXII.- 
Accession of James — His Coronation- 
Gunpowder Plot — Arabella Stuart — T 
— The affairs of Ireland — Persecution 
— Buckingham — Sir Walter Raleigh- 
of the King A. D. 1603 to 1,625. 

Principal Events: Accession of James.... 470 

Coronation of James 471 

The King's conduct towards the Catholics 

and Puritans 472 

Origin of the Gunpowder Plot 171 

Plan of operation arranged 47.3 

The plot discovered 477 

The apprehension and trial of the conspi- 
rators 478 

Execution of Garnet 479 

New penal laws against the Catholics 480 

New insurrection : the King's project for 
uniting the kingdoms 481 



Principal Events : Charles meets his par- 
liament 499 

The penal laws against the Catholics 500 

War with France 501 

Meeting of Parliament 503 

Assassination of Buckingham 504 

Dissolution of Parliament: its memhers 

imprisoned 505 

John Hampden disputes the right of the 

King to levy the tax 50G 

Charles endeavors to establish his arbi- 
trary rule in Ireland 507 

Jury imprisoned for resisting the Crown... 508 
The Covenant : preparations on both sides 509 

Meeting and dissolution of parliament 512 

Trial and execution of Stafford 513 

Character of Stafford 514 

The King impeaches several members 516 



Death of Hampden : Oliver Cromwell 523 

The battle at Newburg 524 

Parliament forms a league with the Cove- 
nanters 525 

Battle of Marston Moor 526 

Battle of Naseby 528 

Struggles of an expiring party 529 

Charles finally surrenders to the Scots 530 

Charles escapes to the Isle of Wight . r >32 

Preparations for the trial of the King 534 

The Commissioners to try the King meet... 535 
Reply of Charles to the charges: he is sen- 
tenced to he beheaded 536 

The King prepares for death.... 538 

His execution: Reflections 539 



CHAPTER XXXIV.— The Commonwealth. 
Council of State appointed — Charles II. proclaimed in Scotland — Success of 
Cromwell in Ireland — Charles lands in Scotland — Battle at Dunbar — Battle 
of Worcester — The Escape and Adventures of Charles — Reduction of Ireland 
and Scotland — Cromwell dissolves the Long Parliament, and expels its 
members — Calls a new Parliament — Makes himself Protector — Aspires to 
the title of King — His Death and Character — His son Richard proclaimed 
Protector — Ho resigns the office. A. D. 1649 to 1660. 

Principal Events: A Council of State 

appointed 541 

Scotland proclaims Charles, sou of the late 

King 542 

Cromwell sent to reduce Ireland : massacre 

at Drogheda and Wexford 544 

Sanguinary proceedings of Cromwell 543 

Charles accedes to the League 546 

Cromwell defeats the Scots at Dunbar 547 

Charles is crowned at Scone : he invades 

England 548 

Battle of Worcester, and defeat of Charles 549 



Adventures of Charles 5.10 

Efforts to exterminate the Catholics 553 

Cromwell dissolves the Parliament 555 

The Barebone Parliament 5.56 

First acts of the Protector 557 

The tyranny of Cromwell 553 

Cromwell aspires to the title of king 560 

Death of Cromwell 561 

Richard Cromwell proclaimed Protector: 

ho retires from the government 502 

The "long" parliament is terminated 564 

Charles is invited to return 565 



CONTENTS. 13 



CHAPTER XXXV.— Charles the Second. 

Charie= calls a new Parliament— Affairs in Ireland— War with the Dutch— 
Plague in London— The Great Fire-War with Holland-The " Test Act — 
Oates's Plot— Bill of Exclusion— Rye-House Plotr-Death and Character ot 
Charles. A. D. 1660 to 1685. 



:m 



Principal Events: Proceedings of the 

first Parliament 

Marriage of Charles ■• • ■*? 

War with the Dutch : Plague in London... 5b8 

Great fire in London .» •• 509 

James, the King's brother, declares himself 

a Catholic ' 

War in Holland : the Test Act 572 

Attempts to exclude the Duke of York bi 6 



Oates's plot: renewed efforts to exclude 
James 574 

Bill of exclusion: Execution of Lord Staf- 
ford 575 

Death of Oliver Plunkett: the Rye-House 



plot.. 



576 



The execution of Sydney 577 

Last illness of Charles: his Character 578 



CHAPTER XXXVL— James the Second. 
The Kino- succeeds to the Throne— His intentions regarding religion— The 
Rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth— The Revolt suppressed— Jeffreys 
commissioned to try the prisoners— James determines to grant liberty ot 
conscience— The King's contest with the Bishops— The Prince of Orange 
lands in England— The King deserted even by his children— He escapes to 
France— Meeting of the Convention— The Bill of Rights— William and 
Mary proclaimed. A. D. 1685 to 1689. 

James determines to grant liberty of con 



Principal Events : The King's views re- 

specting religion •• 580 

The trial and punishment of Titus Oates... 581 
Duke of Monmouth asserts his right to the 

throne ■ - 581 

Monmouth is defeated and taken prisoner., 582 

Monmouth is executed 583 

Jeffreys commissioned to try the prisoners 5b4 



The trial and acquittal of the bishops 587 

William sails and lands at Devonshire 5S8 

James is deserted by his children 589 

Meetings of the Convention: William and 

Mary proclaimed 590 

Declaration of rights >>91 



CHAPTER XXXVII.— William ahd Mary. 

Insurrection in Scotland— James lands in Ireland-Battle of the Boyne— 

Treaty of Limerick— Death and Character of the King. A. D. 1689 to 1702. 

Principal Events: Viscount Dundee 593 I Death of Queen Mary : Death of James and ^ 

^S^^^'^^oTL.meriek::: 595 1 wm^m^character::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: m 

CHAPTER XXXVIIL— Anne. ^"" 

Anne succeeds to the throne— England joins the Grand Alliance— Victories 
of Marlborough— The Union of England and Scotland— Impeachment ot 
Sacheverell— Treaty of Utrecht— Death of Anne— Her Character. A. D. 
1702 to 1714. 

Principal Evknts: Marlborough's vie- ^ , The ■ffff^^ g$S^$SZL\ ™ 

Uni™ oTEnglandlnd Scotland 599 her Character 602 

Chevalier St. George 6O0 ' 

CHAPTER XXXIX.— George the First. 

Accession of George the First— Insurrection in Scotland— South Sea Bubble- 
Death of the King. A. D. 1714 to 1727. 

PRINCIPAL Events: The Insurrection in I South Sea Bubble: Death of the King 605 

Scotland 604 I Uis Character **"> 



14 



CONTENTS. 



War renewed between England and France 611 
The surrender of Quebec : War in the East 

Indies 612 

England forms an alliance with Frederick 

of Prussia 613 

Death of the King: his Character 614 



CHAPTER XL.— George the Second. 

War with Spain — England supports the cause of Maria Theresa — Charles 

Edward lands in Scotland — Battles of Prestonpans and of Culloden — Peace 

of Aix-la-Chapelle — War between England and France renewed — Surrender 

of Quebec— War in the East Indies— Death of the King. A. D. 1727 to 1760. 

Principal Events: Contest with Spain: 
Maria Theresa 607 

French victory at Fontenoy : Charles Ed- 
ward lands in Scotland 608 

Victory of Charles Edward at Prestonpans 609 

Battle of Culloden 610 

The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle 611 

CHAPTER XLL— George the Third. 
The Accession of the King — War between England and France continued — 
Treaty of Paris — John Wilkes — Policy of England toward her American 
Colonies — Stamp Act — Hostilities commenced between England and the 
Colonies — Declaration of American Independence — Peace between England 
and the United States declared — Efforts to repeal the Penal Laws — Riots in 
consequence — The Impeachment of Hastings — England joins the war aginst 
France — The success of the British Arms in Spain — War with the United 
States — England again joins the Allies against Napoleon — Battle of Water- 
loo—Death and Character of Geonre the Third. A. D. 1760 to 1820. 



Principal Events : The war with France 

continued 616 

Prosecution of John Wilkes 617 

The Stamp Act 618 

Tax on tea, glass, &c, imposed 619 

Taxes repealed except on tea: Destruction 

of tea at Boston 620 

Commencement of hostilities between Eng- 
land and America 621 

Declaration of Independence 621 

Death of Chatham: Peace between Eng- 
land and America declared 622 

Efforts to repeal the penal laws against 

Catholics 623 

Defence of Gibraltar 625 

Pitt prime minister : Prince of Wales 626 

Warren Hastings impeached : the slave- 
trade 627 

George becomes deranged 628 



Progress of the war against France : Na- 
poleon Bonaparte 629 

Invasion of England anticipated 630 

Battle of Alexandria: War in India 631 

Napoleon prepares to invade England 632 

Ireland at this period 632 

Irish leaders betrayed : The Insurrection.... 633 

The Legislative Union 634 

Death of Emmett : Death of Pitt 635 

Battle of Trafalgar: Death of Fox 636 

Treaty of Tilsit : Peninsular War : Death 

of Sir John Moore 637 

Success of Wellington in Spain 638 

Napoleon invades Russia 639 

War with America 640 

Congress at Vienna 641 

Napoleon returns from Elba: Battle of 

Waterloo 642 

Death and Character of George HI 643 



CHAPTER XLIL— George the Fourth. 
Accession of George IV. — Proceedings against Queen Caroline — Coronation 
of the King — He visits Ireland — Revolt in Greece — Catholic Emancipation 
—Death of the King. A. D. 1820 to 1830. 

Principal Events: Proceedings against I Catholic Emancipation 619 

the Queen 645 The Bill passed 650 

Death of Grattan : Coronation of the King 646 Death of the King 651 

George visits Ireland : Battle of Navarino 647 I 

CHAPTER XLIIL— William the Fourth. 

His accession to the throne — Affairs in France — The state of Ireland — Death 
of the King — Chief events of his reign. A. D. 1830 to 1837. 



Peel made prime minister 655 

The Oran.ee associations dissolved 656 

Death of the King: Events of his reign 657 



Principal Events : Affairs in France 651 

First railway in England 652 

Agitation on the subject of reform 653 

The state of Ireland : Repeal of the Union 654 

CHAPTER XLIV.— Queen Victoria. 

The accession of the Queen — Her marriage and coronation — War in the East 
Indies — Famine in Ireland — Literature. 



Principal Events: Coronation of the 

Queen 659 

Her marriage 669 



War in the East Indies 659 

Leading Events: Famine in Ireland 660 

Literature: Social improvement in Ireland 661 



SKETCH 



OF THE 



CONSTITUTION OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 



The British Empire consists of the United Kingdom of Great Britain 
and Ireland (together with several adjacent small islands), and of colo- 
nial possessions of vast extent in different parts of the globe. The 
constitution is monarchical, but the powers of the sovereign are limited 
by certain restrictions which tend to preserve the liberty of the subject, 
and to maintain the balance of power between the different classes m 
the state The supreme authority is vested in the Parliament, which 
consists of the King (or Queen), the House of Lords, and the House of 
Commons. A queen-consort or prince-consort does not possess, as such, 
any political power according to law. 

The Sovereign alone can summon parliament to meet, and he alone 
can prorogue or dissolve it. He is at the head of the executive power 
in the empire, and all magistrates are considered as deriving their 
authority from him. To him, also, belongs the creation of peers, the 
appointment of officers in the army and navy, governors of colonies, and 
all ministers of state. He alone can declare war, make peace, or enter 
into treaties with foreign nations. It is a maxim among writers on the 
constitution that "the king can do no wrong;" which means that the 
law has not provided any tribunal before which he could be tried for 
any alleged offence. But there are circumstances which would cause 
the sovereign to forfeit his legal right to the allegiance of the people; 
such as levying war upon his subjects, seeking to collect taxes not voted 
by parliament, or (according to the present laws) ceasing to be a mem- 
ber of the Protestant church. The sovereign is the head of that church 
in England, and (though a form of election is gone .through) appoints 
the bishops of the establishment. 

The Ministry (sometimes called the cabinet) consists of those officers 
of state to whose hands the sovereign deputes the task of managing the 
various public departments. Although they are appointed by the crown 
they are liable to impeachment for departing from the constitution, and 
may be legally punished for such misconduct. They seldom continue 



1G SKETCH OF THE CONSTITUTION. 

to hold office when defeated on any leading question of public policy ; for, 
if parliament were opposed to their continuance in power, the supplies 
(as the taxes are called) could be refused, and the national business 
brought to a stand-still. The first Lord of the Treasury is generally 
called the prime minister and sometimes the premier, and is usually, 
but not always, the leader of his colleagues. The Lord Chancellor pre- 
sides in the court of chancery, and is the speaker of the House of Lords. 
The Chancellor of the Exchequer attends to the business of taxation, 
causing to be prepared estimates of the amount of money required for 
the public service, and endeavouring to raise such money, by obtaining 
the sanction of parliament to the various branches of taxation. There 
are secretaries of state for the home department, the colonies, foreign 
affairs, and war, upon each of whom, as well as upon several other min- 
isterial officers, important duties devolve. The council, which is called 
the privy council, consists of all who have been called upon to join in 
consultation with the sovereign, and they are styled "right honour- 
able." They are, however, now so numerous, and so many are (from 
ministerial changes) opposed to the policy of those who are in office, that 
(except on certain occasions) only a few are summoned to take part in 
deliberation. The sovereign is in Ireland represented by the Lord 
Lieutenant, under whom there is a secretary of state for Ireland, but 
no political steps are taken by the Irish portion of the government with- 
out the sanction of the ministry in general. 

The House of Lords consists of all the English peers, of twenty-eight 
Irish peers, elected for life, and of sixteen Scotch peers, who are only 
elected for each parliament. The members of the House of Lords are 
either spiritual or temporal. The spiritual lords are the archbishops 
and bishops, those from Ireland sitting in rotation. The sovereign may 
create peers as often as he pleases, but this prerogative is not frequently 
used. The House of Lords cannot, according to the constitution, origi- 
nate bills referring to taxation. There are at present four hundred and 
forty members of the House of Lords, including twenty-eight peers from 
Ireland, and sixteen from Scotland. A peer cannot be tried for any 
crime except by peers. The House of Lords is the highest court of 
justice, and appeals from other courts are frequently tried there ; but 
it is seldom that any except the peers who have been connected with 
the legal profession, take part in the judicial proceedings. A peer may 
vote by proxy by leaving a written authority with another peer. 

The House of Commons consists of six hundred and fifty-eight mem- 
bers, of whom one hundred and five represent Ireland and fifty repre- 
sent Scotland. The House of Commons is presided over by a chairman, 
who is called the Speaker; but when a certain form of debate called 
committee takes place, some other member occupies the chair. The 
speaker takes no part in the debates, and only votes when the members 
in a division are equal. The mode of proceeding adopted, when it is 
sought to make a new act of parliament, is as follows: The proposer 



SKETCH OF THE CONSTITUTION. 17 

obtains formal leave to bring in the measure, -which, before it becomes 
law, is called a Bill. The bill is "read" three times, but only a few 
■words are read out, for the members know its contents, as all bills are 
printed at an early stage. Between the second and third readings, an 
examination of each clause of the bill takes place, in what is called a 
Committee of the whole House ; and it is at this period that alterations 
can be made in the details of the bill. When a bill has received three 
readings in the House of Commons, it must go through the same process 
in the House of Lords. Any bill, except one involving taxation, may 
originate in the House of Lords and receive its three readings there 
first. If alterations be made in the House of Lords in a bill which has 
passed the House of Commons (or vice versa), the alterations must be re- 
ported to the house where the measure originated ; and, if the changes 
be not agreed to, the bill drops. This, however, is seldom the case, as 
a compromise generally takes place between the two houses. The bill, 
having received three readings in each house, next obtains the royal 
assent (which may be refused, but seldom is), and then becomes the 
law of the land, and is termed an Act of Parliament. 

Members of parliament are free from arrest, except in criminal cases. 
They must, with certain exceptions, be legally entitled to £G00 a year 
if representing counties, and £300 if representing boroughs, which re- 
spective amounts are termed their qualification. Scotch members, and 
some others, do not require a qualification. Prorogation of parlia- 
ment means the closing of the session, and generally takes place in Au- 
gust for about six months ; but the prorogation is nominally for a much 
shorter period, so that the houses may assemble, if public business 
should require that course. Each session is opened and closed by a 
royal speech, either personally delivered by the sovereign, or read by 
the Lord Chancellor, under a royal commission. A dissolution of par- 
liament takes place when the members are sent back to their constitu- 
ents (as the electors are called), in order that the opinion of the country 
may be taken on the question, as to whether the same men ought to 
continue to constitute the House of Commons. This must, by law, take 
place each seventh year ; but, in practice, the interval is much shorter. 

The revenue is the name given to the sums of money annually raised for 
the purpose of defraying the expenses of the various public departments. 
The revenue (not including extraordinary war supplies) is about fifty 
millions sterling. A large portion of this (about thirty millions sterling) 
goes to pay the interest on the national debt, which is now about eight 
hundred millions sterling. The national debt grew up by degrees dur- 
ing the last hundred and sixty years, in consequence of the ordinary 
revenue of the country not being sufficient to meet the immense expen- 
diture of the numerous wars, in which England was engaged. The 
revenue is partly obtained by taxes levied on certain articles imported 
or exported, and this branch of the public income is called the customs. 
The excise consists of those taxes which are levied on articles manufac- 

2* 



18 SKETCH OF THE CONSTITUTION. 

tured for home use. Large sums are also brought into the national 
treasury from duties, called stamp duties, imposed on legal documents, 
and from the direct taxation of certain articles of luxury. At present 
there is also a tax levied on the property, or income, of all those who 
are worth more than £100 a year. 

The civil list is the name given to the expenditure which is allotted 
for the personal support of the sovereign and household. It is now 
£385,000, with power to the crown to grant pensions to the amount 
of £1200 a year. 

The army and navy, of course, absorb a large portion of the revenue ; 
in time of peace about sixteen millions sterling. A standing army is 
illegal, and, therefore, an act called the "Mutiny Act" is passed annu- 
ally, to authorize the keeping up of such a force. The army, in time 
of peace, consists of about 100,000 men. 

The religion of the state is Protestant, and the sovereign must, by 
act of parliament, be of that religion. In England and Ireland, the 
state church is governed by archbishops and bishops. In Scotland, 
Fresbyterianism is the state church, and there are no prelates. In 
Lower Canada, the Catholic prelates are paid by the state ; in Malta, 
the Catholic religion is the state church ; while in the Cape of Good 
Hope, it is Fresbyterianism. 

The legal tribunals of the country are guided by the statute law (acts 
of parliament), and the common law which is not written, but which 
has been handed down as the custom of several centuries. 

The principal court for civil suits is the court of common pleas. The 
court of king's (or queen's) bench, which was at first only a criminal 
tribunal, and the court of exchequer, which was designed only to decide 
in cases concerning the revenue, have become civil courts by means of 
fictions in their respective modes of procedure. The court of chancery, 
presided over by the lord chancellor, administers the law of equity. 
Courts under these designations sit both in Westminster and in Dublin. 
There are also courts of assize, which, in England, perform six provin- 
cial circuits, twice a year. Minor cases, criminal as well as civil, are 
judged by bodies of provincial magistracy, who meet in every county 
once every quarter of a year. Besides the civil and criminal tribunals, 
there are ecclesiastical courts, which have jurisdiction in matters con- 
nected with marriage, wills, &c, and adopt the principle of the old 
canon law. There are also courts of admiralty, which decide questions 
between persons of different nations, according to the code of civil law 
recognised throughout Europe. 

The law in Ireland and in Scotland differs in detail from the law of 
England, but the principles are mainly the same. 

Such are the leading features of the British Constitution. For mi- 
nuter details the student must consult the numerous valuable works 
which have been published on the subject. 



DISTINGUISHED NATIVES 

OF 

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



Sth Century. 
Bede, called the Venerable, ecclesiastical historian. 

9th Century. 

Alfred the Great, legislator, commander, poet, and musician. 

1214. Roger Bacon, the father of modern experimental philosophy. 

1321. William of Wykeham, munificent ecclesiastic and architect, born at Wykeham, 
Hants. 

1328. Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English poetry, born in London. 

1480. Sir Thomas More, statesman and philosopher, born in London. 

1506. George Buchanan, poet, philosopher, historian, and politician, born in Dumbar- 
tonshire. 

1551. Sir Philip Sidney, writer of romance, poet, statesman, and soldier, born at Pens- 

hurst, in Kent. 
James Crichton, whose accomplishments of mind and body obtained him the ap- 
pellation of the "Admirable," born in Scotland. 

1552. Sir Walter Raleigh, poet, statesman, historian, and naval captain, born at Dudley, 

in Devonshire. 

1553. Edmund Spencer, poet and politician, born at East Smithficld, in London. 

1554. Fulk Greville, Lord Brooke, philosopher and statesman, the friend of Sir Philip 

Sidney, born in Warwickshire. 
1557. George Chapman, dramatic poet, and first English translator of the works of Homer. 
1561. Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, philosopher, born in London. 

1563. Michael Drayton, pastoral and descriptive poet, born in Warwickshire. 

1564. William Shakspeare, the poet of all nature, born at Stratford-upon-Avon. 
1572. Inigo Jones, architect, born in London. 

1574. Ben Jonson, the learned comic dramatist, born in Hartshorn-lane, near Charing- 

cross. 
1576. John Fletcher, dramatic and lyric poet. 

1578. William Harvey, discoverer of the circulation of the blood, born at Folkstone, Kent. 
1581. Edward Herbert, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, philosopher and biographer, born at 

Montgomery Castle. 
1584. John Selden, the most learned wit of England, born at Salvington, in Sussex. 

1555. Philip Massinger, dramatic poet, born at Salisbury. 

1599. Oliver Cromwell, statesman and general, born at Huntingdon. 

1600. Samuel Butler, a witty satirist, born at Strentham, in Worcestershire. 
1C05. Sir Thomas Browne, antiquary, born in London. 

Edmund Waller, poet, born at Cole's Hill, Herts. 

160S. John Milton, the great English epic poet, and writer of politics and polemics, born 

in Bread street, Cheapside. 
1618. Abraham Cowley, poet and essayist, born in London. 
1620. Andrew Marvell, wit, poet, and politician, born at Hull. 
Year unknown. Jeremy Taylor, an eloquent English divine, born at Cambridge. 

19 



20 DISTINGUISHED NATIVES. 

1631. John Dryden, poet, bom at Aldwinkle, near Oundle, in Northamptonshire. 

1632. John Locke, philosopher and politician, born at Wrington, in Somersetshire. 

Sir Christopher Wren, architect, born at Knoyle, in Wiltshire. 

1642. Sir Isaac Newton, the founder of the present system of mundane philosophy, 

chronologer, and perfecter of optics. 
1644. William Penn, the illustrious founder of Pennsylvania, born in London. 
1656. Edmund Halley, astronomer, born in London. 
1660. Daniel De Foe, novelist, born in London. 
1664. Matthew Prior, poet, born in London. 
1667. Jonathan Swift, satirist and politician, born in Dublin. 

1671. William Congreve, the most witty of dramatists, born in Staffordshire. 
Sir Richard Steele, wit, essayist, and dramatist, born in Dublin. 

1672. Joseph Addison, essayist, born at Milston, in Wiltshire. 

Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, politician and philosopher, born at Battersea. 

1684. Dr. George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, a profound metaphysician, born in Ireland. 

1688. Alexander Pope, poet, born in London. 

John Gay, poet and dramatist, born at or near Barnstable, in Devonshire. 

1689. Samuel Richardson, novelist, born in Derbyshire. 

1698. William Hogarth, the inventor of moral satiric painting, born in London. 
1700. James Thomson, the poet of the Seasons, born at Ednam in Roxburghshire. 

1706. Samuel Johnson, philologer and essayist, born at Litchfield. 

1707. Henry Fielding, novelist, born at Sharpham, in Somersetshire. 
1711. David Hume, philosopher and historian, born at Edinburgh. 
1713. Laurence Sterne, comic romancer, born at Clonmel, in Ireland. 
1716. David Garrick, actor and reformer of the stage, born at Hereford. 

Thomas Gray, lyric poet, born in London. 

1720. Tobias Smollett, novelist and poet, born on the banks of the Leven, in Scotland. 

William Collins, lyric poet, born at Chichester. 

1726. John Howard, philanthropist, writer on prisons and lazarettos, born at Hackney. 

1728. Captain James Cook, the great navigator, born in Yorkshire. 

1729. Oliver Goldsmith, poet, essayist, dramatist and novelist, born at Elfin, in Ireland. 

1730. Edmund Burke, orator and politician, born at Dublin. 

1731. William Cowper, poet, born at Berkhampstead. 
1737. Edward Gibbon, historian, born at Putney. 

1752. Thomas Chatterton, an extraordinary youth, born at Bristol. 
1771. John Lingard, the great Catholic historian of England, born (5th February) at 
Winchester. 



During the last seventy or eighty years a large number of men, of very great talent, 
have added to the literature of these countries, while in the senate and at the bar several 
distinguished orators appeared. 

The principal poets of this period were, Robert Burns, the great Scottish lyrist; Lord 
Byron (author of Childe Harold, and other poems) ; Sir Walter Scott (author of the Lady 
of the Lake, Marmion, &c.) ; Thomas Campbell (author of the Pleasures of Hope, several 
beautiful odes, &c.) ; Thomas Moore (author of Lalla Rookh, the Irish Melodies, -£c.) ; 
James Hogg, the " Ettrick Shepherd'' (author of the Queen's Wake, &c.) ; Percy Bysshe 
Shelley (author of several poetical works displaying much genius, but of an infidel ten- 
dency) ; Charles Wolfe (author of a beautiful dirge on Sir John Moore, and a few other 
poems) ; Samuel Rogers (author of the Pleasures of Memory, <ic.) ; Keats (author of 
Endymion, &c.) ; Maturin (author of Bertram, <tc); Professor Wilson (author of Isle 
of Palms, &c. :) Robert Southey, William Wordsworth, Dr. Moir, (" Delta"), Alfred Ten- 
nyson, James Montgomery, F.obert Montgomery, D. F. M"Carthy, and several other wri- 
ters, who principally contributed to periodical literature. 



DISTINGUISHED NATIVES. 21 

The period we have named was remarkably rich in oratory. Succeeding to the age of 
Lord Chatham, Henry Flood, and Edmund Burke, followed Charles James Fox, llenry 
Grattan, William Pitt, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, George Canning, William Wyndham, 
Lord Plunket, John Philpot Curran, Lord Erskine, Charles Kendal Bushe, Peter Bur- 
rowes, William Wilberforce, William Huskisson, Daniel O'Connell, Richard Shiel, Lord 
Brougham, Sir James Mackintosh, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Sir Robert Peel, and 
many others who, at the Bar or in the Senate, displayed considerable powers of eloquence. 

In polemical literature, Dr. Doyle, the Catholic Bishop of Kildare; Dr. Wiseman, Car- 
dinal Archbishop of Westminster; Dr. Dixon, Catholic Primate of all Ireland; Dr. Mac 
Hale, Archbishop of Tuam; Dr. Newman, Rector of the Catholic University; Dr. Miley 
(author of "History of the Papal States"); and many others have produced works of 
great learning and eloquence. 

In prose, light literature, Sir Walter Scott (author of the Waverley novels) holds the 
first place. Sir Edward Bulwer, Gerald Griffin, John Banim, Charles Dickens, William 
Carleton, W. M. Thackeray, Samuel Warren, Charles Lever, and some others have pro- 
duced works of fiction, giving evidence of great talent. 

In history and politics, Lingard's volumes appeared, as also the writings of Roscoe, 
Alison, Jeffrey, Macaulay, Hazlitt, William Cobbett, and others. 

In the fine arts, Lawrence, Chantrey, Pugin, Hogan, and others produced some beau- 
tiful works, and in theoretical and practical science, a large number of eminent men 
appeared. John Kemble, Edmund Kean, Mrs. Siddons, and several other less distin- 
guished, but excellent performers, supported the credit of the drama. 

A great deal of female talent was developed during the last half century; Miss Edge- 
worth, Mrs. Hemans, Miss Strickland, Lady Morgan, and several other female writers 
having contributed largely and ably to literature. 



GEOGRAPHY OF ENGLAND UNDER THE SAXONS. 

The various parts of Britain in which the Saxons and their confederates spread them- 
selves were as follows : 

The Jutes— Kent, the isle of Wight, and part of Hampshire ; 
- The South Saxons— Sussex ; 

The East Saxons — Essex, Middlesex, and the south of Hertfordshire ; 

The West Saxons— Surrey, Hants, Berks, Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and part of 
Cornwall ; 

The East Angles— Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, and Ely; 

The Middle Angles — Leicestershire; 

The North Mercians— Chester, Derby, and Nottingham; 

The South Mercians— Lincoln, Northampton, Rutland, Huntingdon, Bedfordshire, 
Hertfordshire, Bucks, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Here- 
fordshire, Staffordshire, and Shropshire ; 

The Northumbrians, who were the Deiri — Lancaster, York, Westmoreland, Cumber- 
land, Durham; 

The Bernicians — Northumberland, and the south of Scotland, between the Tweed and 
the Frith of Forth. 



99 



KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND. 



TABLE OF THE KINGS OF ENGLAND, 

FROM THE ACCESSION OF EGBERT TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 



Began to reign. 


A.D. 


Reign'd 
Years. 


Began to reign. 


A.D. 


Reign'd 
Years. 


SAXONS. 












Egbert, 


827 


10 


Edward the Martyr, II. 


975 


3 


Ethelwolf, 


838 


20 


Ethelred the Unreadv, II. 


978 


38 


Ethel bald, 


857 


3 


Edmund Ironsides, II. 


1016 


1 


Ethel bert, 


860 


6 








Ethelred I. 


866 


5 








Alfred, 


872 


29 


Canute, ' 


1017 


19 


Edward the Elder, 


901 


24 


Harold, 


1036 


3 


Athelstan, 


925 


15 


Hardicanute, 


1039 


2 


Edmund I. 


940 


6 


BAXONS RESTORED. 






Ed red, 
Edwy, 
Edgar, 


946 
959 


9 
4 


Edward the Confessor, III. 


1041 


25 


955 


16 


Harold II. 


1066 


1 



TABLE OF KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND, 
FROM THE CONQUEST. 





g ° 




•a . 






To whom Married. 






« £ 




«* 


William I., the Conqueror, 


1066 


Matilda of Flanders, 


21 


William II. . 


1087 


Never married. 


13 


Henry I. 


1100 


Matilda of Scotland, 


35 


Stephen, 


1135 


Matilda of Boulogne, 


19 


Line of Tlantagenet. 








Henry II. 


1155 


Eleanor of Guienne, 


34 


Kichard I. . 


1189 


Berengaria of Navarre, . 


10 


John, 


1199 


Earl Montague's daughter, 


17 






Hawissa of Gloucester, and 


— 






Isabella of Angouleme, . 


— 


Henry III. 


1216 


Eleanor of Provence, 


56 


Edward I. 


1272 


Eleanor of Castile, and . 


35 






Mary of France, 


— 


Edward II. . 


1307 


Isabella of France, 


19 


Edward III. 


1372 


Philippa of Hainault, 


50 


Richard II. 


1377 


Ann of Bohemia, and 
Isabella of France, 


22 


Henry IV. 


1399 


Mary Bohun, and 


13 






Joanna of Navarre, 


— 


Henry V. . . . 


1413 


Catharine of France, 


10 


Henry VI. 


1422 


Margaret of Anjou, 


38 


Edward IV. 


1461 


Elizabeth Wideville, 


22 


Edward V. 


1483 


Never married, 


— 


Kichard III. 


14S3 


Anne Nevill, 


2 


Line of Tudor. 








HenrvVII. 


1485 


Elizabeth of York, 


23 


Henry VIII. . 


1509 


Catherine of Arragon, . 

Anne Boleyn, . 

Jane Seymour, . 

Ann of Cleves, . . 

Catharine Howard, 

Catherine Parr, 


37 


Edward VI. 


1547 


Never married. 


6 


Mary I. 


1555 


Philip, King of Spain, 


5 


Elizabeth, 


1558 


Never married, . 


44 


Line of Stuart. 








James T. 


1603 


Ann of Denmark, 


22 


Charles I. 


1625 


Henrietta of France, 


24 


Charles II. 


1660 


Catherine of Portugal, . 


24 


James 11. 


1685 


Anne Hyde, and 

Maria DEste of Modena, 


4 


William III., and Mary II. 


1689 


Mary, daughter of James II., 


13 


Anne, .... 


1702 


George of Denmark, 


12 


Line of Hanover or Brunswick. 








George I. . 


1714 


Sophia of Zell, . 


12 


George IT. 


1727 


WUhelminaof Anspach, 


:;.*; 


George Til. 


1760 


Charlotte of Mecklenburgh, 


60 


George IV. 


1820 


Caroline of Brunswick, . 


10 


William IV. 


1830 


Adelaide of Saxe Meiningen, 


7 


Victoria, 


1837 


Albert of Saxe Gotha, 





THE ROYAL FAMILY. 



THE PRESENT ROYAL FAMILY. 
VICTORIA, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of 
the Faith. Her Majesty is the only child of the late Prince Edward, Puke of Kent, 
fourth son of King George III., who died 23d Jan., 1820; was born at Kensington Palace 
24th May, 1819, baptized on 24th June following by the name of Alexandrina Victoria, 
and ascended the throne of these realms on the death of her royal uncle, King 'William 
IV., 20th June, 1837 ; was crowned at Westminster Abbey 2Sth June, 1838 ; married at 
the Chapel Royal, St. James's Palace, 10th Feb., 1840, to Prince Francis Albert Augus- 
tus Charles Emanuel, second son of Ernest Frederick Anthony Charles Louis, late 
Duke of Saxe Coburg and Gotha, born 26th Aug., 1S19, Grand Master of the Order of 
the Bath, Field-Marshal in the Army, Colonel of the Grenadier Guards and Rifle Bri- 
gade, P. C, Lord Warden of the Stanaries, Chief Steward of the Duchy of Cornwall, 
Governor and Constable of Windsor Castle, and Master of the Trinity House. Her 
Majesty has issue, 

1. Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa, Princess Royal, born at Buckingham Palace, 21st 

November, 1840. 

2. Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, Prince of the United Kingdom 

of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Saxony, of Cornwall and Rothsay, Earl of 
Carrick, Earl of Dublin, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Great Steward 
of Scotland, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, born 9th November, 
1841 ; heir apparent to the Crown. 

3. Alice Maudy Mary, born 25th April, 1S43. 

4. Alfred Ernest Albert, Prince of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 

Duke of Saxony, and Prince of Coburg and Gotha, born 6th August, 1S44. 

5. Helena Augusta Victoria, born 5th May, 1846. 

6. Louisa Caroline Alberta, born ISth March, 1848. 

7. Arthur William Patrick Albert, born 1st May, 1850. 

8. Leopold George Duncan Albert, born 7th April, 1853. 

The Queen's Mother, Victoria Maria Louisa, Duchess of Kent, aunt to the Duke of Saxe 
Coburg and Gotha, born 17th August, 1786 ; married first, 21st December, 1S03, Emich 
Charles, Prince of Leiningen, who died 4th July, 1814. Issue— Charles, Prince of Lein- 
ingen, born 12th September, 1804 ; Princess Feodore, born 7th December, 1807. Re- 
married 29th May, 1818, to Edward, Duke of Kent, who died 23d Jan., 1S20. Issue — 
The Queen. 
Her Majesty's Cousins: 
I. Issue of the late Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (King of Hanover), born 
5th June, 1771, who died 18th November, 1851 : 
1. George Frederick Alexander Charles Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, 
George V., King of Hanover. 
II. Issue of the late Adolphus Frederick, Duke of Cambridge : 

1. George William Frederick Charles, Duke of Cambridge, born 26th March, 

1S19. 

2. Augusta Caroline Charlotte Elizabeth Mary Sophia Louisa, born 19th July, 

1822, married 2Sth June, 1S43, to Frederick William Gustavus, Grand Duke 
of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. 

3. Mary Adelaide Wilhelmina Elizabeth, born 27th November, 1S33. 






- 



MEMOIR 



THE REV. DR. LINGARD. 



John Lingard, the subject of the present memoir, was 
descended from an ancient family in Hampshire, England, 
and was born in Winchester, on the fifth of February, 
1771. At an early age, he displayed those qualities of 
mind which so eminently distinguished him in after life. 
The quickness of his intellect, the mildness of his disposition, 
his ready obedience to his parents and superiors, the sincere 
piety which marked his whole demeanor, recommended him, 
at an early period, to Bishop Challoner, who had resolved to 
assume the expense of his education ; but the death of that 
eminent man prevented the execution of this benevolent 
design. 

In Bishop Tolbot, however, the successor of Dr. Chal- 
loner, the youthful Lingard found a patron and a friend. 
The penetrating mind of this prelate was not long in dis- 
covering in Lingard abilities far above his years ; and he 

A i 



ii MEMOIR OF 

immediately determined to carry out, in his regard, the 
designs of his predecessor. Accordingly, in 1781, he sent 
him to the English College at Douay. In this venerable 
institution, young Lingard soon realized the promise of his 
earlier years. With a mind clear and methodical, added 
to an industry that nothing could overcome, he mastered 
every difficulty which presented itself in his studies ; and 
having, with distinguished honor, completed his course of 
humanities, he entered the school of Theology in the 
autumn of 1791. 

The disturbed condition of France about this period 
filled the students and professors of Douay with just appre- 
hension and alarm. The dark cloud, which had been so 
long gathering, was about to burst upon the country, and 
the time-honored College of Douay, which had been justly 
styled "the nurse of martyrs and the bulwark of faith," 
was marked out for destruction. Already scenes of vio- 
lence had been repeatedly committed. Twice had the 
garrison of the town broken loose, and numbers of the 
peaceful and unoffending citizens were hurried to the 
gibbet ; and the excesses of the soldiery intruded within the 
very walls of the college. Often were their bayonets 
pointed at the breasts of the students, and repeatedly were 
their swords drawn over the heads of the superiors. 

On one occasion, Lingard narrowly escaped with his 
life. He had entered the town at the moment the infu- 
riated populace were dragging to execution the unfortunate 
Mons. Derbaix. Lingard, prompted by feelings of sym- 
pathy for a friend and an acquaintance, and forgetful of 



THE REV. DR. LINGARD. Hi 

the danger by which he was surrounded, approached the 
crowd and inquired the cause of the present proceedings. 
His dress soon attracted the attention of the rabble ; the 
cry of La Calotte, and afterward, that of Le Colotin d la 
lanterne, soon admonished him of his danger. He turned 
and fled with the utmost precipitation ; and the fleetness 
of his steps alone saved him from the fury of his pursuers. 

These acts of violence, which now grew daily more 
alarming, admonished the inmates of the college of the 
danger of their position. For some time, however, they 
confided in their character as British subjects, and trusted 
for protection to the provisions of the treaty of commerce, 
and to the presence of an ambassador in Paris ; but the last 
ray of confidence was dispelled by the declaration of war 
between England and France, which took place shortly 
after the execution of the unfortunate Louis XVI. Im- 
mediately after this event, the College at Douay was 
forcibly occupied by a body of armed men, and the 
students and professors were removed, first to Escherquin, 
and afterward confined at Dourlens. 

Previously to this occurrence, many of the more prudent 
of the community, foreseeing the danger which was about 
to break upon them, privately withdrew from Douay and 
escaped to England. Among these was young Lingard. 
The fugitives, after various migrations, settled at Crook 
Hall, in the vicinity of Durham, and formed themselves 
into a seminary under the presidency of the Kev. Thomas 
Eyre, and there resumed their collegiate exercises. 

In the early part of the year 1795, the remnant of the 



j v MEMOIR OF 

community, which had been detained at Dourlens, was 
released from a tedious confinement, and in company with 
sixty-two of their brethren from the College of St. Omer's, 
the remaining students and professors of Douay arrived in 
England. Shortly after their arrival, a portion of the 
community settled in Hertfordshire ; but the more nume- 
rous body proceeded to the north, and obtained an asylum 
at Crook Hall, which had been previously occupied by the 
students who had made their escape during the early part 
of the troubles in France. 

In the quietude of Crook Hall, Lingard continued and 
completed his course of Theology, and was ordained priest 
by Bishop Gibson, on the 6th of May, 1795. Shortly 
after his ordination, he received the appointment of vice- 
president of the seminary at Crook Hall, and for many 
years filled the chair of both Natural and Moral Phi- 
losophy. 

Though removed from the dangers by which they were 
surrounded at Douay, Lingard and his companions found 
their situation at Crook Hall by no means agreeable. 
They were subjected to innumerable privations and hard- 
ships, owing to the confined dimensions of the house, its 
limited accommodations, its bleak and uncomfortable apart- 
ments. Of the sacrifices which they made, and of the 
expedients to which they were compelled to resort, many 
interesting incidents are related. But they were men who 
had been inured to labor and to suffer ; they had been 
taught in a school where confessors lived; from which 
martyrs had gone forth to confirm, with their blood, the 



THE REV. DR. LINGARD. v 

doctrines of the Church of God. To these men, sufferings, 
privations, or comforts were alike indifferent. Indeed, it 
was owing to the expedients by which the inmates of 
Crook Hall at once sought to improve their minds, and 
elevate themselves above the discomforts of their situa- 
tion, that we are indebted for the first, and one of the 
most interesting literary labors of Dr. Lingard. 

During the winter evenings, the professors and students 
at Crook Hall were accustomed to assemble together for the 
purpose of literary entertainment. At these meetings, each 
in his turn furnished an original essay on some moral, scien- 
tific, or historical subject, according to the taste or ability 
of the writer; these were read for the entertainment or 
amusement of the company. Lingard, whose mind had been 
accustomed, from an early period, to dwell upon the antiquities 
of his country, embodied his thoughts on this subject in a 
series of detached papers, which he read to his companions 
at their evening entertainments. As the exercises advanced, 
the interest of his audience grew more and more intense. 
The depth of his researches and the extent of his reading 
excited their surprise and admiration ; and when the series 
drew to a close, they united, with one accord, in urging 
him to mould the detached parts into a regular form, and 
publish them as a continued history. For some time his 
modesty prevented him from yielding to their request ; at 
length, however, the importunity of his friends prevailed, 
and the work, since known as " The Antiquities of the 
Anglo-Saxon Church," was committed to the press. This 
work treats of the establishment of the faith among the 

A 2 



vi MEMOIR OF 

Anglo-Saxons, of the origin and progress of the monastic 
institute, of the government of the church, of the religious 
practices of the people, of the learning, the literature, and 
the laws of the Anglo-Saxon times. It was first published 
in 1806, and so great was the demand for it, that several 
successive editions were immediately called for. In 1844, 
the work was revised and enlarged by the learned author, 
and a new edition given to the public. 

In 1808, the community removed from Crook Hall to 
the more commodious establishment at Ushaw. Lingard 
accompanied his brethren to their new home, and for 
several years continued to lend the institution the aid 
of his ability and his zeal. The great literary abilities of 
Dr. Lingard now began to attract general attention, and 
several literary institutions made him the most flattering 
offers to attach him to their service. He had been re- 
peatedly solicited by Bishop Moylan to accept the presi- 
dency of the College at Maynooth, and was subsequently 
urged by Bishop Poynter to accept a similar honor in 
reference to Old Hall. But these honors he respectfully 
declined ; and, preferring a course more agreeable to his 
habits and disposition, he withdrew from Ushaw in the 
fall of 1811, and retired to the secluded mission of Hornby. 

Previously to this period Dr. Lingard had conceived the 
design of the great work which was to crown the pyramid 
of his fame. From the time of the publication of his 
"Anglo-Saxon Church," his friends had urged him to 
undertake the publication of a general history of his 
country. For various reasons, he hesitated to embark in 



THE REV. DR. LINGARD. vii 

a work which might prove injurious to the interests of 
the college ; and during his residence at Ushaw he seems 
to have almost abandoned the idea. But with his removal 
to Hornby, the subject was again revived. His new situa- 
tion allowed him time to pursue his studies with but slight 
interruption from his professional duties; and he began, 
without delay, to prepare the materials for his future 
history. From the commencement of the work, he had 
resolved to take nothing on credit, but had determined to 
examine original documents, whenever it could be done, no 
matter how much labor it might cost him. When we 
reflect on the nature of the work, and the extent of period 
over which it had to pass, we may readily conceive the 
labor to which it subjected its author. But no research, 
however tedious, no investigation, however difficult, could 
exhaust his patience, or shake his perseverance. Bay 
after day, he might be seen in the British Museum, or m 
the archives of the State, examining original papers, and 
making such extracts as he deemed important, for the 
great work on which he was engaged. 
5 During the spring of 1817, Lingard visited Rome, being 
commissioned by Dr. Poynter to negotiate matters of much 
importance. He was received at Rome with every mark 
of courtesy, and was entirely successful in the object of his 
mission. During his stay, the archives of the Vatican 
were open to him by the orders of Cardinal Consalvi, who 
on all occasions manifested toward him the utmost kindness 
and respect. Lingard readily availed himself of the privi- 
lege thus extended to him, to examine many original docu- 



dii MEMOIR OF 

ments which he anticipated would materially aid him in 
the prosecution of his work ; but the confusion into which 
every thing had been thrown by the French Revolution, 
prevented him from obtaining all the information he desired. 

On his return to England, he applied himself with re- 
doubled energy to the prosecution of his history, which he 
was now preparing for the press. During the year 1819, 
he entered into a contract with a Mr. Mawman, of London, 
for the publication of a portion of the work ; and in the 
early part of the following year, the first three volumes, 
extending to the end of the reign of Henry VII., were 
given to the public. In the succeeding year, the fourth 
volume, containing the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward 
VI., was published. The remaining volumes appeared at 
intervals, and in the spring of 1830 the work was brought 
to a close. 

In the mean time the reputation of the work had in- 
creased with the appearance of each succeeding volume. 
At home and abroad it was hailed with approbation by 
scholars of every class. Its reception at Rome bordered 
on enthusiasm. Dr. Gradwell, president of the English 
College, writing to Lingard, says : " The fourth volume of 
your history arrived here about three weeks ago, to the joy 
of the whole house. As soon as we have finished it, it is 
engaged by the Scotch College ; then by Father O'Finan, 
of the Irish Dominicans; then by Monsignor Testa, the 
Pope's Latin Secretary, and many others. Their eager- 
ness is extreme. . . . For my own part, I never read a 
volume of history with so much pleasure-' 



THE REV. DR. LINGARD. ix 

Of the estimation in which the author was held by the 
Pope, Pius VII. , we may judge from the following facts. 
On the 24th of August, 1821, shortly after the reception 
of the fourth volume of his history in Rome, he caused a 
brief to be issued, in which, after a recital of his labors 
in the cause of religion, and in defence of the authority of 
the Holy See, he conferred on him the triple academical 
laurel, and created him Doctor of Divinity, and of Canon 
and of Civil Law. 

Several editions of his history were shortly called for in 
England, and various translations of it were widely circu- 
lated in France, Germany, and Italy. By a special decree 
of the University of Paris, it was ordered that a copy should 
be placed in the library of every college in France ; and 
that copies should be distributed as prizes to the students 
in philosophy and rhetoric. While the great literary abili- 
ties of Dr. Lingard became the universal theme of admi- 
ration, he himself studiously avoided every mark of dis- 
tinction, and rejected every attempt to withdraw him from 
his seclusion at Hornby. In 1825, he paid a second visit 
to Rome, where he was again received with every mark of 
distinction, especially by the Pope, Leo XII. The pontiff 
used every persuasion to engage the learned author to take 
up his residence at Rome, and on one occasion asked him 
if there were nothing that he could bestow on him, that 
could induce him to comply with his request. Lingard 
referred to his history, and the necessity of his being in 
England to enable him to complete it. At his departure, 
Leo, as a testimonial of his high regard, gave him the gold 



X MEMOIR OF 

medal, which etiquette then generally confined to cardinals 
and princes. In the following year, the Pope strongly 
indicated his desire of raising the English historian to the 
cardinal dignity. Dr. Lingard, on receiving intelligence 
of this rumor, wrote immediately to his friend Testa in 
Rome, earnestly requesting, that if the report which had 
reached him were true, to use his influence with the pontiff 
to divert him from his design. This letter he concluded 
in the following words : "I cannot bear the idea of expa- 
triating myself, and much less, of shackling myself with 
all the formalities of the court of Rome." 

With the completion of his History of England, the lite- 
rary fame of Dr. Lingard became established throughout 
Europe. In his retirement at Hornby, he was consulted by 
scholars from the continent, as well as by those of his own 
country, who sought the aid of his learning and his counsel. 
To answer the numerous letters addressed to him on almost 
every subject, became in itself an onerous duty ; yet his 
energy, his diligence and activity were always equal to 
the task ; to each correspondent, however humble, he re- 
turned a satisfactory and punctual reply. His industry 
was untiring. Even when far advanced in years, each 
succeeding day found him as actively engaged as in the 
vigor of youth and manhood. Three different times ; he 
thoroughly revised his History of England, and in each 
successive edition he gave to the world the result of his 
later studies. The last revision of this work was completed 
in 1849, when it was published in ten octavo volumes. 

This was the last effort of his great and powerful mind ; 



THE REV. DR. LINGARD. xi 

his long life was drawing to a close ; hence, in the preface 
to the last edition of his history, he alluded to the declining 
state of his health, and observed: " That a long and pain- 
ful malady, joined to the infirmities of age, had already 
admonished him to bid a final adieu to those studies with 
which he had been so long familiar." During the spring 
of 1851, his infirmities greatly increased, and on Easter 
Monday of that year he was taken seriously ill. For two 
months he grew gradually worse, and before the end of 
June all hopes of his recovery had vanished. As the hour 
of his dissolution approached, he withdrew himself more and 
more from all earthly objects, and fixed his mind upon that 
future world to which he was hastening. He spoke of his 
approaching end with the utmost calmness and resignation, 
and looked forward with humble confidence to the moment 
which would terminate his earthly career, and open to his 
view the scenes of eternity. For two weeks previous to 
his death, each succeeding day seemed about to be his last. 
At length, on the morning of the 17th of July, having 
received all the rites of the Church, he calmly expired, in 
the 81st year of his age. 

Few men in private life had more warm and personal 
friends than Dr. Lingard. In conversation he was the 
delight of all who heard him. The buoyancy of his mind, 
the ingenuity of his wit, the rich store of anecdote always 
at his command, rendered his company at all times agree- 
able, and won the admiration of all who approached him. 
By the simplicity of his manners, by the benevolence of 
his disposition, and by the warmth of his heart, he endeared 



xii MEMOIR OF 

himself to all who knew him. His death, therefore, was 
deplored by the large circle of his friends as a domestic 
calamity. His society was courted not only by the mem- 
bers of his own church, but by persons of almost every 
creed, with whom he lived on terms of the most familiar 
and unreserved intercourse. Ardently attached to the 
faith of the Catholic Church, he sought on all occasions to 
extend the influence of its divine precepts ; not, however, 
by angry disputation with his Protestant neighbors, but 
by the mildness of his disposition, the modesty of his 
deportment, and the unobtrusive practice of those virtues 
which adorn the character of the Christian. Indeed, no 
man ever labored more zealously than Dr. Lingard to 
moderate the bitterness and to remove the prejudice of 
Protestants. This seems to have been the great aim of all 
his writings. "For my own part," says he, on one occa- 
sion in writing to a friend, " I conceive that he who con- 
tributes to remove prejudice now, lays the groundwork of 
conversion hereafter ; for prejudice, in general, indisposes 
Protestants not only from yielding to argument, but even 
from listening to it. 

During the progress of his history, and after its comple- 
tion, the great abilities of Dr. Lingard were displayed in 
various other literary labors. His letters, addressed to 
the editor of the Neivcastle Courant on the subject of 
Catholic loyalty, published at a moment of great political 
excitement, are an able refutation of the libels and slan- 
derous imputations brought against his Catholic country- 
men. His " Tracts," written during the Durham Contro- 



THE REV. DR. LINGARD. xiii 

versy, place him among the ablest polemical and contro- 
versial writers of his day. His " Reviews of the Anti- 
catholic Publications of Lord Kenyon ;" his "Strictures on 
Dr. Marsh's Comparative View of the Churches of Rome 
and England," and his " Observations on the Laws and 
Ordinances of Foreign States relative to the Religious 
Concerns of their Catholic Subjects," are masterly pro- 
ductions, and marked by that force of reasoning and power 
of argument, that elegance and clearness of style, which 
so eminently distinguished him as a writer. In 1836, he 
published his " Translation of the Four Gospels," and in 
1840 his " Catechetical Instructions" were printed ; this 
work forms an able abridgment of the whole body of 
moral and controversial divinity. 

But it is in connection with the history of his native 
country, that the name of Dr. Lingard is destined to take 
its place in the literary annals of future ages. To do 
justice to this great work would far exceed the limits of the 
present memoir of its author. The best comment, however, 
that can be passed upon its merits will be found in the 
universal estimation in which it is held, by scholars of every 
class and of every country. The classical purity of its style 
has ever been admired. But in all the higher qualities which 
adorn a history ; in the fulness of its details, in the lucid 
arrangements of its parts, in its deep research and patient 
investigation ; in its power to elicit and in its honesty to state 
the truth, it stands unrivalled. Its impartiality is pro- 
verbial. Clothed with the invincible armor of truth, the 

learned author fearlessly exposed the errors of former his- 

B 



XIV MEMOIR OF 

torians, destroyed their theories and dissipated the preju- 
dices of ages. 

Before the appearance of Dr. Lingard's history, the 
Protestants of England were almost inaccessible to argu- 
ment. Writer had succeeded writer in the same track of 
misrepresentation, until fiction had almost assumed the 
substance of reality. The public mind was perverted ; it 
had drunk profusely of the polluted fountain of historical 
knowledge ; it held its own views, and maintained its own 
prepossessions ; and every effort heretofore made to remove 
its prejudices had, in general, only tended to confirm them. 
But Dr. Lingard induced his countrymen to read, and 
taught them to think, to doubt, to inquire. "I succeeded," 
he says, in one of his letters, " in awakening the curiosity 
of some minds in the universities ; in provoking doubts of 
the accuracy of their preconceived opinions ; in creating a 
conviction that such opinions were unfounded. The spirit 
of inquiry was excited ; it made gradual progress ; and led, 
in the result, to that movement which we have seen." 

From the many encomiums pronounced upon this great 
work by men of the highest order of talents, we select the 
following. Cardinal Wiseman, in a late number of the 
Dublin JRevietv, thus speaks of the History of England 
and of its learned author : — 

" It is a providence that, in history, we have had given 
to the nation a writer like Lingard, whose gigantic merit 
will be better appreciated in each successive generation, as 
it sees his work standing calm and erect amidst the shoals 
of petty pretenders to usurp his station. When Hume 



THE REV. DR. LINGARD. sv 

shall have fairly taken his place among the classical writers 
of our tongue, and Macaulay shall have been transferred 
to the shelves of romances and poets, and each shall thus 
have received his true meed of praise, then Lingard will be 
still more conspicuous as the only impartial historian of our 
country. This is a mercy indeed, a rightful honor to him 
who, at such a period, worked his way, not into a high 
rank, but to the very loftiest point of literary position." 



THE 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER I. 

gaman gritain. 

Caesar twice invades Britain— The British Tribes— Their manners— Religion— 
Governments-Gradual Conquest of Britain by the Romans— Its state under 
the Emperors— Conversion of the Natives to Christianity — The Romans 
abandon the Island.— From A. C. 54 to A. D. 449. 

It is to the pen of a Roman general that we are indebted for 
our first acquaintance with the history of Britain. Julius Caesar 
had in three years conducted his legions from the foot of the 
Alps to the mouth of the Rhine. From the coast of the Morini 
he could descry the white cliffs of the neighboring island, and 
the conqueror of Gaul aspired to the glory of adding Britain to 
the dominions of Rome. On the 20th of August, Bri g^ ar a ^ Tad r ^ 
in the fifty-fifth year before the Christian era, turns to Gaul. 
Caesar sailed from Calais with the infantry of two legions, and, 
in a few hours, cast anchor before the spot now occupied by the 
town of Deal. The beach was gained after a short struggle with 
the natives, whose untaught valor yielded to the arms and dis- 
cipline of the Roman soldiers. Caesar's camp was however soon 
afterward attacked; and, though the assault was unsuccessful, 
the Roman general felt that his position was insecure, and having 
received an illusory promise of submission from a few of the 
natives, he hastened with his army back to Gaul, and spent the 
following winter in active preparations for renewing the attempt 
to subjugate Britain. 

In spring the Roman army, consisting of five legions and two 
b s 25 



26 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A.C.54. 



Cves&r invades thousand cavalry, sailed from Gaul in eight htm- 
S^ifi dred ships. The Britons retired to the woods, 
the island. 'whither Csesar pursued them. The natives de- 

fended the country with vigor, but avoided a general engage- 
ment with the Roman army. At length, however, they were 
tempted by apparently favourable circumstances to attack Caesar 
with their entire force. Being defeated, many of the British 
tribes returned to their homes, and Cassibelaunus, king of the 
Cassii, the chief of the allies, was left to support the whole 
pressure of the war. This chieftain, by repeated victories over 
his neighbors, had acquired high renown among the natives; 
but, in opposing Caesar, he had to contend not only with the 
foreign enemy, but with the jealousy and resentment of his own 
countrymen. After a severe struggle he was defeated, and sued 
for peace. Caesar willingly listened to the application for peace, 
as he wished to return to Gaul before the autumnal storms would 
set in. A treaty binding Cassibelaunus to pay tribute to Rome 
was accordingly entered into, and Cassar with his army crossed 
over to Gaul in September. The citizens of Rome celebrated 
with joy the victories of their favorite general; but the expe- 
dition had as yet produced only petty results, for although the 
Britons had promised to pay tribute to Rome, Caesar was not 
master of one foot of British ground. 

It is proper that we should here give some account of the man- 
ners and customs of the ancient Britons, as far as they can be 
gleaned from the works of Caesar and other writers, who em- 

The manners and ployed their industry in the investigation of this 
cient Britons. subject shortly after the Roman invasion. It ap- 

pears that, about the commencement of the Christian era, the po- 
pulation of the whole island comprised above forty tribes, of which 
a few possessed a pre-eminence of power. Those tribes which 
are described by Caesar, dwelt near the Thames, and were of Belgic 
origin. Though far removed from the elegance and refinement 
of the Romans, these tribes might almost claim the praise of 
civilization in comparison with the inhabitants of some other por- 
tions of the island. Their dress was of their own manufacture : 
a square mantle covered a vest and trousers, or a deeply plaited 
tunic of braided cloth ; the waist was encircled with a belt ; rings 



54 A. C] ROMAN BRITAIN. 97 



adorned the second finger of each hand, and a chain of iron or 
brass was suspended from the neck. Their huts resembled those 
of their Gallic neighbours; a foundation of stone supported a 
circular wall of timber and reeds, over which was thrown a coni- 
cal roof pierced in the centre for the twofold purpose of admitting 
light and discharging smoke. In husbandry they possessed con- 
siderable skill; they had discovered the use of marl as a manure; 
they raised more corn than was necessary for their own consump- 
tion ; and, to preserve it till the following harvest, they generally 
stored it in the cavities of rocks. But beyond the borders of the 
southern tribes, these faint traces of civilization gradually disap- 
peared. The midland and western nations were unacquainted 
with either agriculture or manufactures. Their riches consisted 
in the extent of their pastures and the number of their flocks. 
With milk.and flesh they satisfied the cravings of hunger, and 
clothed in skins they bade defiance to the inclemency of the 
seasons. But even sheep were scarcely known in the more north- 
ern parts; and the hordes of savages who roamed through the 
wilds of Caledonia often depended for support on the casual pro- 
duce of the chase. They went almost naked, and sheltered them- 
selves from the weather under the cover of the woods, or in the 
caverns of the mountains. 

The superior civilization of the southern tribes was attributed, 
by historians, to their intercourse with the strangers whom the 
pursuits of commerce attracted to their coasts. When the Spanish 
ores began to be exhausted, the principal supply The tin mines of 
of tin was sought from the mines of Britain. The 2!' itai ;V F~ 00 ? n ' 

° •-'-■■•*"' try called Oissiter- 

first who exported this metal from the island were *&* or Tin islands. 
certain Phoenician adventurers from Cadiz. They endeavored to 
conceal their knowledge of the situation of the source of so valu- 
able a branch of commerce, but the Phoenicians of Carthage 
succeeded in discovering the " Cassiterides, or Tin Islands," as 
Britain was called. The Greek colonists of Marseilles came next, 
and by successive navigators the trade was at last thrown open to 
different nations. In return for tin, the Britons received salt for 
the preservation of provisions, earthenware for domestic use, and 
brass for the manufacture of arms and ornaments. The enter- 
prise of the foreigners quickened the industry of the natives, and 



28 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A.C. 54. 



if we may credit a contemporary and well-informed writer, the 
British exports, at the commencement of the Christian era, com- 
prised corn, cattle, gold, silver, tin, lead, iron, skins, slaves, and 
dogs. 

A strange practice, that of painting the body, seems to have 

prevailed in many parts of the island. For this purpose, the 

Custom of paint- southern tribes employed a blue dye extracted from 

ing the body pre- _ i • 1 -i • 1 -n 

vails. wood. Connected with this custom was the still 

more barbarous practice of tattooing, so long in use among the 
more northern Britons. At an early age, the outlines of animals 
were impressed with pointed instruments in the skin ; a strong 
infusion of woad was rubbed into the punctures, and the figures, 
expanding with the growth of the body, retained their original ap- 
pearance through life. 

The religion of the natives was that of the Druids, who adored, 
under different appellations, the same gods as the Greeks and 

The religion of Romans. On the oak they looked with peculiar 

the natives: their m1 . , " „ ,, „ „ . 

mode of worship, reverence, ihis monarch ot the forest, from its 
strength and durability, was considered as the most appropriate 
emblem of the divinity. The tree and its productions were 
deemed holy; to its trunk was bound the victim destined for 
slaughter, and of its leaves were formed the chaplets worn at the 
time of sacrifice. If it chanced to produce the misletoe, the 
whole tribe was summoned ; two white heifers were immolated 
under its branches ; the principal Druid cut the sacred plant with 
a knife of gold, and a religious feast terminated the ceremonies 
of the day. The Druids were accustomed to dwell in huts and 
caverns amid the gloom of the forest. There, at the hours of 
noon or midnight, when the deity was supposed to honor the 
sacred spot with his presence, the trembling votary was admitted 
within a circle of lofty oaks, to prefer his prayer and listen to the 
responses of the minister. In peace they offered the fruits of 
the earth ; in war they devoted to the god of battles the spoils 
of the enemy. In the hour of danger, human sacrifices were 
deemed the most efficacious. The Druids professed to be the 
depositaries of a mysterious science far above the comprehension 
of the vulgar. Their schools were opened to none but the sons 
of illustrious families. Such was their fame that the Druids of 



54 A. C] ROMAN BRITAIN. 29 

(Jaul, to attain the perfection of the institute, did not disdain to 
study under their British brethren. The Druids professed to be 
acquainted with the native power and providence of the divinity ; 
with the figure, size, formation, and final destruction of the earth ; 
with the stars, their position and motions, and their supposed 
influence over human affairs. To medicine, as far as it was con- 
nected with the use of a few plants, they also had some pre- 
tensions. They taught the immortality of the soul, but to this 
great truth they added the absurd fiction of transmigration. The 
Druids exercised the most absolute dominion over The Druias . their 
the minds of their countrymen. By their au- power, 
thority peace was preserved; in their presence passion and re- 
venge were silenced; and at their mandate contending armies 
consented to sheath their swords. Civil controversies were sub- 
mitted to their decision, and the punishment of crimes was 
reserved to their justice. Religion supplied them with power; 
for disobedience to them was followed by excommunication. A 
particular class among the Druids was distinguished by the title 
of bards. The bard was both poet and musician. The bards . their 
Every chieftain retained one or more in his ser- employment, 
vice, who attended in his hall, eulogized his bounty and valor, 
and sang the praises and the history of their country. The 
bard accompanied the chief and his clan to battle ; to the sound 
of his harp they marched against the enemy, and in the heat of 
the contest they animated themselves with the hope that their 
actions would be renowned in song, and transmitted to the admi- 
ration of posterity. 

The form of government adopted by the British tribes has 
scarcely been noticed in history. In some tribes, the supreme 
authority appears to have been divided among The form of 
several chieftains ; in most, it had been intrusted vernm ent. 
to a single individual ; but in all, the people continued to possess 
considerable influence. With respect to the succession, there are 
instances in which the father had portioned his dominions among 
his children, and others in which the reigning prince left the 
crown to his widow, who both exercised the more peaceful duties 
of royalty, and with arms in her hands conducted her subjects to 
the field of battle. In the absence of any fixed notions of suc- 

3* 



30 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. C. 54. 



cession, it is probable that power would frequently supply the 
place of right, and the weaker state fall a victim to the ambition 
of a more warlike neighbor. The Britons were torn by intes- 
tine factions, and it was this rancorous hostility among them- 
selves which hastened their subjugation to the power of Rome. 

Such were the Britons, who by their bravery baffled the 
attempts of the first and most warlike of the Caesars. From 
the time which elapsed between Caesar's final return to Gaul from 
Britain, and the reign of the emperor Claudius, (about a cen- 
tury,) the Britons retained their independence. Augustus thrice 
announced his intention of completely annexing Britain to the 

The conduct of Roman Empire. On one occasion an embassy from 
berius l Tn a re d g ard the inhabitants averted this danger; on the others 
to Britain, a. d. 2i. jt was prevented by more pressing demands upon 
the attention of the Romans at home. Augustus, however, levied 
some duties on the trade between Britain and Gaul. Tiberius 
pretended that the empire was already too extensive, and sought 
to justify his own indolence by the policy of Augustus. In 
opposition to the conduct of Tiberius, his nephew and successor, 

The foolish con- Caligula, exhibited to the world a farce worthy of 
duct of Caligula, font childish prince. Cymbeline, the most power- 
ful of the successors of Cassibelaunus, banished his son Ad- 
minius, who repaired to Rome, and, as if Britain had been his 
patrimony, surrendered the island to Caligula. The emperor 
hastened with a large army to Gaul, arrayed his legions on the 
coast near Boulogne, rowed out to sea in the imperial galley, 
returned precipitately, and gave the signal for battle. The sol- 
diers incpiired where was the enemy, but Caligula informed them 
that they had that day conquered the ocean, and commanded 
them to collect its spoils, the shells on the beach, as a proof of 
victory. He then returned to Rome, to give himself the honors 
of a triumph. 

The empty pageantry of Caligula was soon succeeded by the 
real horrors of invasion. Instigated by a British chief, who had 

Britain again in- keen expelled from his native country, the emperor 
Tailed under the Claudius sent four legions to Britain, under the 

emperor Claudius : ° . 

Caractacus defeat- command of Aulus Plautius. The Britons made 

ed, and led captive , . . . , . . 

to Rome. A.D. so. a determined resistance, under the command of 



50A.D.] ROMAN BRITAIN. 31 

Caractacus, son of Cynibeline, but gave way before the emperor, 
who, having arrived from Rome, put himself at the head of the 
troops. Claudius, on leaving Britain, invested Plautius and Ves- 
pasian (afterward emperor) with the command of the Roman 
army, and returning to Rome, entered that city in triumph. 
Caractacus continued to resist the Roman generals, but being 
defeated by Ostorius Scapula, who had succeeded Plautius, his 
family fell into the hands of the enemy, and he himself was 
delivered up in chains to the Roman general by his stepmother, 
under whose protection he had hoped to elude the vigilance of 
his pursuers. The British prince was led captive through the 
streets of Rome ; and, as he passed through the imperial city, he 
expressed his surprise that men who possessed such palaces at 
home should deem it worth their while to fight for the wretched 
hovels of Britain. Claudius, who (with his empress) was seated 
on a lofty tribunal, felt an honourable pity for his fallen foe, who 
walked after his captive family, and seemed to be by no means 
dispirited by misfortune. The emperor restored him to liberty, 
and is said to have even invested him with authority in Britain. 

The Roman generals had still a brave enemy to contend with, 
for the Silures and other tribes who dwelt in the west maintained 
their ground with firmness against the invaders. The legions of 
Rome, however, pushed their arms victoriously even to the Isle 
of Anglesey. This island was the principal resi- The isle of An- 
dence of the Druids, to whose influence was attri- fj|a ey the v ™DruMs 
buted the obstinate resistance which Britain deBtro yed- 
offered to Rome. The defeat of the British at Anglesey gave a 
shock to the power of the Druids, from which it never recovered. 
Their altars were overthrown, their sacred groves fell beneath the 
axe of the legionaries, and their priests and priestesses were con- 
sumed in the flames which they had prepared for the destruction 
of their expected captives. 

When the Roman general was in Anglesey, a formidable in- 
surrection broke out in Britain. Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, 
who inhabited the eastern counties, being an ally of Rome, left 
the emperor joint heir with his own daughters. The Roman pro- 
curator, however, seized on all the property; and when Boadicea, 
the widow of the king, ventured to remonstrate, she was scourged 



32 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A.D. 61. 

as a slave, and the chastity of her daughters was violated. In- 
Boadicea: her censed by these wrongs, Boadicea resolved upon 
heroic conduct. reveng e ; and she found the British tribes ready to 
take the field against the power of Rome. The disaffection was 
general, for the insults and oppressions of the Romans were 
beyond endurance. The Britons, led by Boadicea, marched on 
London, already a populous and opulent mart. Seutonius Pau- 
linus, the Roman general, hastened from Anglesey to quell the 
insurrection in the east, but being unable to protect London, he 
evacuated that town, which the Britons soon reduced to ashes. 
Verulam (now St. Albans) soon afterward experienced the 
same fate, and historians say that seventy thousand persons fell 
before Boadicea' s army. Suetonius at last felt himself compelled 
to turn his face to the enemy, and, after a long and fierce battle, 
the Roman arms prevailed ; a large number of the Britons were 
slain, several escaped, but Boadicea, though many offered still to 
cling to her fortunes, refused to survive the defeat she had met 
with, and terminated her eventful career by suicide. 

The reputation of preceding Roman governors was obscured 

by the more splendid and more lasting fame of Cneius Julius 

A.gricola, who extended the Roman sway throughout the greater 

The exertions of P 01 '^ 011 0I> tne island. He reformed the civil ad- 

Agrjcoia to esta- ministration, established a more equitable system 

bhsh order in Bn- ' . 

tain. of taxation, listened with kindness to the com- 

plaints of the natives, and severely punished the tyranny of in- 
ferior officers. At his instigation the chieftains left the forests, 
and came to dwell near the Roman stations, where they learned 
to admire the refinements of civilization, and acquired a taste for 
improvement. Agricola resolved to distinguish his government 
by adding largely to the power of the Romans in Britain, and 
marched with a large army into the north. The Caledonians, 
under the command of Galgacus, endeavored to defend the 
passage of the Grampians, but without success. Agricola was 
victorious, and soon afterward (his period of governorship having 
expired) being succeeded by Lucullus, he returned to Rome, and 
retired into private life. 

The Roman power continued for a long time after this period 
firmly established in Britain. The tribes which had submitted 



78 A. D.] ROMAN BRITAIN. 33 

made no attempt to recover their independence, and the Caledo- 
nians, humbled by their last defeat, were content to roam without 
molestation in their native forests. The successors of Agricola, 
instead of conducting the legions in the field, were employed in 
protecting the public tranquillity, in settling the details of the 
provincial government, and in assimilating the state of Britain to 
that of the other countries which had been incorporated in the 
empire. After about thirty years, however, from the departure 
of Agricola, the state of Britain had become so precarious in con- 
sequence of the frequent invasions of the Caledo- The invasions of 
nians, that the emperor Hadrian placed himself at t £ Bffl jii«»rf a An.- 
the head of the Roman troops in the island. He ^^^- a.d.us. 
recovered some territory which had been lost, and built a fortifi- 
cation sixty miles in length from the Solway Frith to the mouth 
of the Tyne. During the reign of his successor, Antoninus, the 
northern tribes were repeatedly in arms, and Lollius, the governor 
of Britain, erected another fortification from the Forth to the 
Clyde, which, in honor of the emperor, he named the vallum 
of Antoninus. 

Some years afterward, the emperor Severus, although in ad- 
vanced life, and in declining health, took the com- The emperor Se- 
mand of the Roman army in Britain for the pur- ^[nf belabors 
pose of endeavouring to subdue the northern there - 
tribes, who still continued to harass that portion of the island 
which had submitted to the power of Rome. He marched with 
a large army as far as the Frith of Cromarty, but gained no sub- 
stantial advantage over the Caledonians. He returned to York, 
having lost a large part of his army, and set himself to devise 
means for the security of the southern provinces. With this view 
he built a solid wall of stone, a little to the north of the vallum 
of Hadrian, which was of earth. This wall was twelve feet high. 
It wound its course along valleys and over mountains, and some 
of its remains are viewed at the present day with feelings of as- 
tonishment. 

For more than seventy years from the reign of Severus, who 
died at York, Britain seems to have enjoyed com- Thg Franks and 
parative tranquillity. After this period of rest, Saxons harass the 

i . » i -n i a i shores of Britain. 

the incursions of the Franks and baxons began a.d. 284. 



34 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 284. 

to harass the shores of Britain, and the distracted state of the 
empire prevented the emperors from sending large forces to de- 
fend the Roman possessions in the island. Dioclesian, however, 
sent some ships to restrain these northern nations, and gave the 
command of the Roman fleet, with the title of "Count of the 
Saxon shore," to an experienced officer named Carausius. It soon 
appeared that this officer was bribed by the enemy, and steps were 
taken to punish him. Carausius, however, induced the fleet to 
espouse his cause, and, sailing into a British harbour, he assumed 
the name of Augustus with the title of emperor, and set Rome 
at defiance. Constantius hastened to the British seas to oppose 
him, and succeeded in wresting from his sway Boulogne, and other 
parts of Gaul, of which he had made himself master. Carausius 
soon afterward fell a victim to treachery, being murdered by his 

Constantius op- minister, Allectus, who assumed his position. Con- 
poses the usurpa- . . , , , ,. „ . . 

tion of Allectus. stantius prepared to dethrone Allectus from his 
usurped sovereignty, and after some time spent in the necessary 
arrangement, sailed with a large fleet for the coast of Kent. On 
reaching Britain, he learned that Allectus was dead. Proceeding 
up the Thames he entered London, which had been rebuilt. He 
restored the imperial authority in Britain, resided in the island, 
and under his sway the natives enjoyed the benefit of a mild and 
equitable administration, till their happiness was disturbed by re- 
ligious persecution. 

At the distance of so many ages, it is impossible to discover by 
whom Christianity was first preached in the island. Some writers 
By whom Chris- bave ascribed that province to St. Peter, others 
uuced^rBritai^ have Preferred the rival claim of St. Paul ; but both 
a. d. 297. opinions, improbable as they are in themselves, rest 

on the most slender evidence — on testimonies, which are many 
of them irrelevant, all ambiguous and unsatisfactory. It is, how- 
ever, certain that at a very early period there were Christians in 
Britain : nor is it difficult to account for the circumstance, from 
the intercourse which had long subsisted between the island and 
Rome. Within a very few years from the Ascension of Christ, the 
Church of Rome had attained great celebrity ; soon afterward it 
attracted the notice and was honoured with the enmity of Claudius 
and Nero. Of the Romans whom at that period choice or ne- 



297 A. D.] ROMAN BRITAIN. 35 

cessity conducted to Britain, and of the Britons who were in- 
duced to visit Rome, some would, of course, become acquainted 
with the professors of the gospel, and yield to the exertions of 
tbeir zeal. Both Pomponia Graecina, the wife of the proconsul 
Plautius, the first who made any permanent conquest in the 
island, and Claudia, a British lady, who had married the senator 
Pudens, are, on rather probable grounds, believed to have been 
Christians. But whether it was owing to the piety of these, or 
of other individuals, that the doctrine of Christianity was first 
introduced among the Britons, it appears to have made proselytes, 
and to have proceeded with a silent but steady pace toward the 
extremity of the island. The attention of the Roman officers was 
absorbed in the civil and military duties of their stations ; and 
while the blood of the Christians flowed in the other provinces of 
the empire, the Britons were suffered to practise the new religion 
without molestation. There is even evidence that the knowledge 
of the gospel was not confined to the subjects of Rome. Before 
the close of the second century, it had penetrated among the in- 
dependent tribes of the north. 

It might have been expected that the British writers would 
have preserved the memory of an event so important in their 
eyes as the conversion of their fathers. But their traditions have 
been so embellished or disfigured by fiction, that without col- 
lateral evidence, it is hardly possible to distinguish in them what 
is real from what is imaginary. After deducting from the ac- 
count of Nennius and his brethren every improba- What we may 
ble circumstance, we may believe that the authori- jg^toESfaS 
ty conferred by the emperor Claudius on Cogidu- of Christianity. 
nus, was continued in his family, that Lucius (" Leves maur," or 
the great light,) one of his near descendants, was a believer in 
the gospel, that he sent to Rome Fagan and Dervan, to be more 
perfectly instructed in the Christian faith ; and that these envoys, 
having received ordination from Pope Eleutherius, at their re- 
turn, under the influence of their patron, increased the number of 
the proselytes by their preaching, and established the British after 
the model of the continental churches. But independently of such 
authority, we have undoubted proof that the believers were nume- 
rous, and that a regular hierarchy had been instituted before 



36 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 303. 



the close of the third century. For, by contemporary writers, 
the Church of Britain is always put on an equality with the 
Churches of Spain and Gaul ; and in one of the most early of 
the western councils, that of Aries, in 314, we meet with the 
names of British Bishops, Elborius of York, Restitutus of London, 
and Adelphius of Lincoln. 

It has been observed that the British Christians had hitherto 
escaped the persecutions to which their continental brethren were 
repeatedly exposed. But, in the beginning of the fourth cen- 
tury, Dioclesian and Masimian determined to avenge the disasters 
of the empire on the professors of the gospel ; and edicts were 
published, by which the churches in every province 
lished against the were ordered to be demolished, and the refusal to 

Christians in Bri- , . ,, , n . -, 

tain, by Dioclesian worship the gods ot paganism was made a crime 
the d con^cf a of punishable with death. Though Constantius might 
Constantius. condemn, he dared not forbid the execution of the 

imperial mandate ; but he was careful, at the same time, to show 
by his conduct his own opinion of religious persecution. Assem- 
bling; around him the Christian officers of his household, he com- 
municated to them the will of the emperors, and added, that 
they must determine to resign their employments, or to abjure 
the worship of Christ. If some among them preferred their 
interest to their religion, they received the reward which their 
perfidy deserved — as Csesar dismissed them from his service, 
observing that he would never trust the fidelity of men who had 
proved themselves traitors to their God. But the moderation of 
Constantius did not restrain the zeal of the inferior magistrates. 
The churches in almost every district were levelled with the 
ground ; and of the Christians, many fled for safety to the forests 
and mountains ; many suffered with constancy both torture and 
death. Gildas has preserved the name of Julius and Aaron, 
citizens of Caerleon-upon-Usk ; and the memory of Alban, the 
protomartyr of Britain, was long celebrated both in his own 
country and among the neighbouring nations. But, within less 
than two years, Dioclesian and Maximian resigned the purple; 
Constantius and Galerius assumed the title of emperors ; and the 
freedom of religious worship was restored to the Christian in- 
habitants of the island. 



306 A. D.] ROMAN BRITAIN. 37 

Constantius was married to Helena — whom our national his- 
torians represent as the daughter of a British prince — but when 
he was raised to the dignity of Caesar, he was compelled to repu- 
diate Helena for Theodora, the daughter-in-law of Maximian. 
Helena, however, had already borne him a son in Britain, known 
in history as Constantine the Great. The young prince was edu- 
cated at Konie ; but hearing that his father was ill, he fled to 
Britain, and reached York a few days before Constantius expired. 
His father recommended him to the soldiers, and c0 £°^ a e "a n e f the 
he assumed the title of Caesar. When Constan- Roman Empire. 
tine became the acknowledged head of the Koman Empire, he 
placed Britain under the jurisdiction of the governor of Gaul, 
who appointed a deputy to reside on the island. Under Con- 
stantine and his immediate successors, Britain enjoyed more than 
fifty years of tranquillity ; the aggressions of the barbarians were 
repressed, and industry and commerce were encouraged. 

At length, however, the great fabric of the Roman power was 
shaken to its foundation, by the hordes of barbarians, who, 
issuing from the east and north, depopulated the fairest provinces, 
and poured like a torrent into the flourishing plains of Italy. 
The troops were recalled from distant places to defend the heart 
of the empire. The Picts and Scots (who inhabit- The p ic t s an d 
ed the localities hitherto occupied by the Caledo- Scots " 
nians) availed themselves of the defenceless state of southern 
Britain, and harassed the natives with frequent incursions for a 
long period of time. The Picts were probably the same nation 
as the Caledonians, though under another name. The Scots were 
emigrants who crossed over to Caledonia from the north of Ire- 
land, and subsequently gave a name to the northern division of 
Britain. These tribes maintained a hostile attitude toward the 
southern British for a long period. Sometimes, as for instance 
under Theodosius, who was called the deliverer of Britain, they 
were driven into their mountain fastnesses with great loss. They 
never, however, were totally defeated, and consequently when the 
British lost the protection of the Roman soldiers, the Picts and Scots 
were emboldened to attack them. When the Bri- The Britong left 
tish applied to Rome for aid, the emperor Honorius to provide for their 

ill • n mi own 8& foty. A. JO 

told them to provide for their own safety, lne na- 411. 

4 



38 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 449. 



tives then threw off all allegiance to the Roman emperor, deposed 
the Roman magistrates, took up arms, and succeeded in driving the 
Picts and Scots out of their territories. Several independent chief- 
tains set up governments in Britain ; but for some time, at this pe- 
riod, we lose accurate sources of historical information. The dissen- 
sions between the chieftains seem to have led to a continuation of 
civil war. Pestilence and famine aided the Picts and Scots in their 
renewed attack on a disorganized people, and at length one of the 
British kings, Vortigern, had recourse to an expedient which had 
ultimately the most important effects on the history of the island. 
This prince, learning that a Saxon fleet was cruising in the chan- 
Hengist and ne ^ made terms with its commanders, two brothers 
cWeffainr^id^he name d Hengist and Horsa, who agreed to aid him 
Britons. \ n fighting his battles, and to depend for their re- 

ward upon future arrangements. They landed at Ebbsfleet, and 
were cantoned in the island of Thanet. This memorable event 
took place in the year 449 ; from which era historians date the 
total cessation of the influence of the Roman Empire on the 
affairs of Britain, and the earliest dawn of Saxon power in the 
island. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Saxons found eight distinct Kingdoms — The Natives retire to the Western 
Coast — Reigns of the Saxon Bretwaldas, and of other Saxon Kings, down 
to Alfred — Account of the writers, Bede and Alcuin — Foundation of the 
English Monarchy under Egbert.— From A. D. 449 to A. D. 871. 

For six years, Hengist and Horsa served Vortigern with 
fidelity : the Picts were taught to respect, and the Britons were 
eager to reward their valour. Hengist obtained leave to send for 
reinforcements from his own country. Several Saxon chieftains 
arrived in Britain ; and, at length, the number of their followers 
became an object of apprehension to the Britons. The refusal, 



455 A. D.] ANGLO-SAXONS. 39 

by the Britons, to supply provisions to the Saxons, was the occa- 
sion of an open rupture. A battle was fought at Aylesford, on 
the Medway. In this engagement Vortigern lost Rupture between 
a son, and Hengist lost his brother, Horso. A the , British king 

7 ° ' and the Saxon 

second battle was soon fought, in which the chieftains, uattie 
Britons were defeated, and fled to London. The ford. 
British power was not yet broken, however, for the natives for 
many years maintained a severe struggle with the Saxons. Hen- 
gist lived till the year 488, and then left the peaceable possession 
of Kent to his son Oisc. 

The British writers attribute the loss of Kent to an attachment 
which Vortigern entertained for Bowena, the daughter of Hen- 
gist. These authors state that Vortigern mar- opinions of Bri- 
ried Itowena, and bestowed on Hengist the king- tish writers, 
dom of Kent. Vortimir, however, the son of Vortigern, ex- 
pelled the Saxons, and Hengist wandered for five years upon the 
ocean. At the death of Vortimir, his father, who was still alive, 
recovered the power which he had lost, and Hengist demanded 
the restoration of the territories of which Vortimer had deprived 
him. Three hundred deputies were appointed to settle the ques- 
tion, but during the conference all the British deputies were 
assassinated except Vortigern. He was detained in captivity, 
and in order to ransom him, the natives yielded to Hengist the 
south-eastern portion of Britain. Such is the British narrative, 
but it is contradicted by strong evidence, and seems to have been 
invented by the natives, to account for the settlement of tbe 
Saxons without admitting conquest. 

While Hengist and his successors were content with Kent, a 
new band of adventurers landed, in the year 477, under the com- 
mand of iElla and his three sons, who, after several severe battles 
with the natives, succeeded, after thirteen years' warfare, in 
founding the kingdom of Sussex, or of the South Saxons. 

Cerdic, with another band of Saxons, landed in the south-west, 
and by repeated victories extended the Saxon cerdic extends 
power in that part of the island, and founded the the Saxon power " 
kingdom of Wessex, or of the West Saxons. A chief named 
Erkenwin landed on the north bank of the Thames, and founded 
the kingdom of Essex, or of the East Saxons. 



40 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A.D 596 



Within one hundred and fifty years from the arrival of Hen- 
gist, the natives had retired before their enemies from the coast 
to the mountains, and had left about half of South Britain in 

. . E ^ ht Saxon the possession of the Saxons. Eight new king- 
kingdoms formed. x o o 

a.d. 586. doms had been formed: Kent, Sussex, Essex, 

East Anglia, Bernicia, Deira, Wessex, and Mercia. Sometimes 
the Saxon kingdoms are only considered seven ; as Bernicia and 
Deira became united. These were in the north. Mercia com- 
prised the interior of the island, as far as the mountains of 
Wales. East Anglia comprehended Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, 
and Ely. We have already explained the situations of the 
other Saxon kingdoms. The Britons maintained a vigorous re- 
sistance, led by several distinguished chieftains, of whom Arthur 
has obtained the foremost place in renown, though of his history 
scarcely any thing is accurately known. Some of the Britons, 
to escape from the Saxons, crossed over to Armorica, which still 
retains the name of Bretagne. 

Although the Saxon sovereigns were independent of each other, 
yet it generally happened that one monarch exercised a prepon- 
The Bretwaida, derating influence, and he was designated by the 
or Britain-wieider! title of Bretwaida, or " Britain-wielder." Seven 
Saxon kings had this honour : they were JElla of Sussex, Ceawlin 
of Wessex, Ethelbert of Kent, Redwald of East Anglia, Edwin 
of Northumberland, (comprising Bernicia and Beira,) Oswald of 
the Bernician portion of Northumberland, and Oswio, the brother 
of Oswald. 

The most distinguished of the monarchs entitled Bretwaida 
was Ethelbert, king of Kent, who reigned for fifty-six years. In 

Pope Gregory his reign, Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine 
IT convert 118 the to convert the Saxons to Christianity. Augustine, 
Saxons. ^.j^ f or t Y companions, landed on the Isle of 

Thanet. Ethelbert (whose queen, a Frenchwoman, was a Chris- 
tian) received the missionaries under an oak-tree in an open 
field. Before Augustine were borne a silver cross and a banner 
representing the Redeemer ; behind him, his companions walked 
in procession, while the air resounded with the anthems which 
they sang. Ethelbert received them courteously, permitted them 
to preach, but was not then converted. He even went so far as 



597 A. D.] ANGLO-SAXONS. 41 



to promise to support the missionaries at his own expense. They 
excited the admiration of all who came to visit them : the people 
approved of a religion which inspired such piety. The king 
viewed these feelings of his subjects with pleasure, and on the 
feast of Pentecost, in the year 597, he professed himself a Chris- 
tian, and received the sacrament of baptism. On the following 
Christmas, ten thousand of his subjects followed the royal 
example. The pontiff was highly pleased with the success of 
Augustine, and wrote to Ethelbert, sending him presents. The 
king allotted Canterbury and the surrounding district to the 
missionaries, and Augustine became prelate. At this period also 
the see of Rochester was founded, and Ethelbert built suitable 
places of worship, besides converting the pagan temples into 
Christian churches. Augustine employed much of his time in 
endeavouring to restore among the British tribes the ancient dis- 
cipline of the Church. The British Christian bishops met Augus- 
tine in Worcestershire, and conferred respecting some differences 
which existed in discipline between them and Borne. The points 
in dispute had reference to the time of celebrating Easter, and to 
the mode of administering baptism. The conference did not end 
satisfactorily. It is pleasing, however, to reflect, that there does 
not appear to have been even the smallest difference in doctrine 
between the tenets of the Christian bishops and the religion 
taught by Augustine. 

Ethelbert published during his long and useful life many im- 
portant laws, in order to regulate the administra- Lawg of Ethel . 
tion of justice. A pecuniary fine was appointed bert - 
to each crime, and a criminal was compelled to make compensa- 
tion to the violated justice of the country, as well as to the family 
of the injured party. The fine called were was the sum at which 
the life of each person was rated ) that which was denominated 
mund was intended to protect individuals from insult, by pro- 
viding for the security of each according to rank. 

In addition to the history of the monarchs denominated " Bret- 
walda," the Anglo-Saxon annals are taken up with numerous de- 
tails respecting those kings who did not obtain that distinctive 
appellation. The sovereigns of Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex 

occupy the leading position. There is not much in this portion 
c 4® 



42 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 700 



of English history to interest the student, presenting, as it does, 
little more than one continued scene of perfidy, treason, and murder. 

Amid this social chaos, it is pleasing to discover two distin- 
guished scholars, Bede and Alcuin, whose literary superiority was 
acknowledged hy their contemporaries, and to whose writings and 
exertions Europe was principally indebted for that portion of 
learning which she possessed from the eighth to the eleventh 
Bede and Ai- century. Bede was a native of Sunderland, and 
rary productions, was educated by the monks of Jarrow, on the 
banks of the Tyne. He studied every science which survived 
the ruin of the Roman Empire, and has astonished every reader 
of his works with the depth and variety of his attainments. His 
principal production was the " Ecclesiastical History of the Na- 
tion of the Angles." Bede died at Jarrow, in the year 733. 
Alcuin was a native of York ; his literary reputation attracted 
students to him from Gaul and Germany, and subsequently led 
to his being invited to the court of Charlemagne, where he 
passed the principal portion of his life. His works consisted 
mostly of poems, essays on scientific and theological subjects, and 
letters to the leading characters of the age. 

After numerous and protracted struggles, between the Saxon 

princes, for superiority, Egbert, king of Wessex, triumphed over 

Egbert unites all opponents, and united the several Anglo-Saxon 

doms into 'one m<> nations into one great and powerful monarchy. 

rnyaded 1 ^^^ This WaS ab ° Ut the J™ Y 828 ' At this P eriod > 

Danes. Egbert, having obtained the sovereignty of almost 

the entire of England, saw himself assailed by a foreign and 
most dangerous enemy. The Danes who inhabited Jutland and 
the islands of the Baltic lived by piracy, and had frequently made 
descents upon the coast of England. They effected a landing on 
the banks of the river Dart, in the year 834, and plundered the 
country. In the following year they landed in Cornwall, and 
obtained the support of the Britons. A battle ensued between 
the Danes and Egbert, in which the Saxon king was victorious. 
This was the last exploit of Egbert, who soon afterward died, 
after a long, glorious, and fortunate reign. Egbert is always 
mentioned as the first king of England, as he was the first who 
united the Anglo-Saxon monarchies under one crown. 



849 A. D.] ALFRED THE GREAT. 43 



CHAPTER III. 

His Birth ; Education ; Accession to the Throne — His Contests with the Danes 
— His Reverses — His Success — His Victories — His Labours in favour of Lite- 
rature— His Death.— A. D. 849 to A.D. 901. 

With the name of Alfred, posterity has associated the epithet 
of " the Great." The kings, his predecessors, are chiefly known 
to us by their actions in the field of battle : it is the praise of 
Alfred that he was not only a warrior, but also the patron of the 
arts and the legislator of his people. Their history has been 
compressed into a few pages, but his merits will deserve a more 
detailed narration. Alfred was born at Wantage ; Alfred bom at 
he was the youngest of the four sons of Ethel wulf Wantage, a.d. 849. 
and Osburga, the daughter of Oslac. The beauty, vivacity, and 
playfulness of the boy endeared him to his parents, who affected 
to foresee that he would one day prove the chief ornament of the 
race of Cerdic. It was this partiality which induced the king to 
send him, when only in his fifth year, with a numerous retinue, to 
Rome, to be crowned by the pontiff, and afterward, when the 
royal pilgrim himself visited the apostolic city, Alfred was selected 
to accompany his father. 

The Anglo-Saxons of this period had degenerated from the lite- 
rary reputation of'their ancestors. The thanes, dividing the time 
between their occupations of war and the pleasures of the chase, 
despised the tranquil pursuits of knowledge, and directed the at- 
tention of their children to those exercises which impart habits 
of strength, agility, and courage : Osburga, however, had the 
merit of awakening in the mind of Alfred that a passion for 

„ , . i i • i i i looming awaken- 

passion tor learning by which he was so honour- ed in his mind, 
ably distinguished from his contemporaries. Holding in her hand 
a Saxon poem, elegantly written and beautifully illuminated, she 
offered it as a reward to the first of her children whose proficiency 
should enable him to read it. The emulation of Alfred was ex- 
cited ; he ran to his master, applied to the task with diligence, 



44 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A.D. 871 



performed it to the satisfaction of the queen, and received the 
prize of his industry. 

But soon, by the death of both parents, the education of the 

young prince devolved on his elder brothers, to whom the pursuits 

of literature were probably objects of contempt. His proficiency 

under their care was limited to the art of reading, from which he 

His early educa- could derive no other immediate advantage than 

Hon limited to the . , „ „ , , , - . 

art of reading. the perusal ot a tew Saxon poems and books ot de- 
votion, written in the vernacular idiom. It proved, however, to 
him an acquisition of considerable importance, for it laid the 
foundation of his subsequent improvement ; it urged his curiosity 
to explore those treasures of history and science which were 
locked up in the obscurity of a learned language, and it enabled 
him at a later period to apply with success to the study of the 
Latin tongue ; but his health was then impaired by disease, his 
mind occupied with the cares of government, and in the company 
of his friends he often lamented that indulgence which had per- 
mitted him to throw away the years of his youth in pursuits and 
diversions from which he had reaped nothing but ignorance and 
regret. 

When, upon the death of his brother, the unanimous voice of 
the West Saxons called Alfred to the throne, in 871, he at first 
declined that honour. His objections having been overruled, the 
Archbishop of Canterbury placed the crown upon his head. He 
Alfred is called was soon called upon to contend with the Danes, 
rava^s^of ' T the wno na( ^ keen f° r some tmie organizing their 
Danes - forces. Alfred induced them to quit the West 

Saxon territories for a valuable present. The king of Mercia 
also hoped to purchase the forbearance of the powerful North- 
men, but when they had received his gifts they treated him with 
derision, and burnt down the monastery of Repton. The entire 
of the Anglo-Saxon territories soon became subject to the in- 
vaders, except the districts north of the Tyne and south of 
the Thames. Wherever they came their path was marked with 
the evidence of their cruelty ; the abbey of Lindisfarne was re- 
duced to ashes, while the bishop and monks fled to the mountains ; 
at Coldingham, the nuns disfigured their faces with wounds in 
order to avoid the insults of the barbarians, and preserved theu 



876 A. D.] ALFRED TPIE GREAT. 45 

chastity though they perished in the flames. In 876 the Danes 
under Guthrun invaded Wessex; Alfred opposed them, but ob- 
serving their strength, thought it wiser to negotiate with the 
enemy. They broke through the most solemn engagements, and, 
marching rapidly in the night-time, they took possession of 
Exeter. 

Alfred, unable to cope with the Danes on land, resolved to op- 
pose them on the sea. He therefore speedily equipped a few 
ships, and manned them with some foreign adventurers. He 
soon succeeded in capturing a Danish ship of war, which circum- 
stance elevated his hopes. Alfred obtained some other advan- 
tages over the enemy, and the Danes retired into Mercia. They 
soon, however, appeared again in Wessex, and Alfred being taken 
by surprise, (for Guthrun had adopted the unusual course of a 
winter campaign, when Alfred's troops were not under arms,) fled 
to a secluded retreat in Somersetshire, which was Alfred secludes 

. himself in Somer- 

afterward known as Ethelmgey, or Prince s Island, setshire. 

It is said that he was entertained one day, at this period of his 

life, in the cottage of a swineherd, and that his hostess desired 

him to watch some cakes which she was baking on the hearth : 

Alfred's mind was deeply occupied with other matters, and the 

cakes were burnt, for which he was severely reprimanded by the 

woman. 

Alfred in his retirement carefully watched for some opportunity 
to expel the Danes. His hopes were roused by the tidings that 
a Saxon chief, Odun, had gained a victory over the Danes, and 
had captured their standard, on which was worked a raven, and 
to which they attached a superstitious importance. The spirit of 
the Saxons revived, and Alfred, by means of trusty messengers, 
invited his countrymen to meet him on a certain day, in Selwood 
Forest. On the appointed day the summons was cheerfully 
obeyed, Alfred was hailed as the avenger of his country, the wood 
echoed with acclamation, and every heart beat with the confidence 
of victory. Preparations were made without delay for an engage- 
ment with the Danes, who, under the command of Guthrun, were 
at no great distance. It is said by some historians that Alfred, 
disguised as a harper, visited the Danish camp, where he observed 
their negligence, and learned their ulterior objects. This story 



46 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 880. 

Danes tt^lthan- is disbelieYed b y many writers. The battle was 
dime. fought near Ethandirne, (now called Brixton,) and 

both armies displayed the most signal courage. The Danes were 
defeated and fled. Guthrun soon afterward surrendered, and, 
(according to treaty,) with thirty of his officers, embraced Chris- 
tianity, Alfred being his sponsor. Guthrun retreated to Mercia, 
and afterward to East Anglia, and though solicited by the Danes 
to renew the war with Alfred, he remained faithful to his engage- 
ments with that monarch. • 
The retreat of Guthrun gave to Wossex a long respite from 
the horrors of war, and fifteen years of comparative tranquillity 

He attends to the left Alfred at leisure to attend to the improvement 
cmHzItSn^of 8 ^ and civilization of his people. The army claimed 
people. his first care; the desultory but incessant attacks 

of the Danes had demonstrated the necessity of organizing a 
force which should be ready to take the field at the first alarm, 
and to march to any part of the coast that was menaced with an 
attack ; but at the same time the scarcity arising from the fre- 
quent suspensions of agricultural labor, showed the impolicy of 
collecting together the great mass of the population. Alfred 
adopted an improved plan, which, while it was calculated to oppose 
a formidable force to the descents of the Northmen, secured a suf- 
ficient supply of hands for the cultivation of the soil. The de- 
fence of the towns and cities was intrusted to the courage and 
fidelity of the inhabitants, under the direction of the king's Ge- 
refa, or reeve ; of the rest of the free population, the males were 
divided into two classes, to each of which was allotted in rotation 
a regular term of service. They were commanded by the king 
or the ealdorman of the county j and instead of pay, received 
from the national stores a proportionate supply of provisions. 

The utility of fortifications had been sufficiently demonstrated 
by the example of the Danes, and the successful defence of 
Kynwith. By the orders of Alfred, a survey was made of the 

lie builds castles eoast and navigable rivers, and castles were built in 
co n alt, f To tifi p e reve t nt P laces the best fitted to prevent the landing, or to im- 
the landing of the p e de the progress of an enemy. Yet in this under- 
taking, of which the necessity was so apparent, he 
had to encounter numerous difficulties, arising from the prejudices 



883 A. D.] ALFRED THE GREAT. 47 



and indolence of his people. In many instances the execution of 
the royal orders was postponed, in others the buildings were aban- 
doned as soon as the foundations had been laid. But occasional 
descents of the Danes came in aid of the king's authority; those 
who had lost their property by their negligence were eager to re- 
pair the fault by their industry ; and before the close of his reign, 
Alfred had the satisfaction to see more than fifty castles built ac- 
cording to his directions. 

The first attempt which the king made to create a navy has 
been already mentioned. His success stimulated him to new ex- 
ertions, and to acquire knowledge and to do honour to the naval 
profession, he often accompanied his squadrons in their expedi- 
tions. On one of these occasions he met four sail of Northmen ; two 
were captured by boarding, and their crews put to the sword ; the 
commanders of the other two, terrified by the fate ilis guccags over 
of their companions and their own loss, threw down the Danes b ? sea - 
their arms, and on their knees solicited mercy. On another oc- 
casion, the Saxon fleet surprised and captured thirteen sail in the 
river Stour ; every man on board was massacred ; but the same 
evening, the victors, in their return, were intercepted by a Danish 
squadron, and completely defeated. As soon as the king became 
acquainted with the arts of attack and the modes of defence 
practised by the northern nations, several improvements suggested 
themselves to his superior sagacity. He ordered ships to 
be built of larger dimensions than those of the Danes; their 
decks were higher, and their length double. The 1Ie increages tbe 
increased elevation gave his mariners an advantage size of Ms sh 'P s - 
over their enemies, who were compelled to direct their strokes up- 
ward, and the greater bulk of the vessels added to their stability 
in the water, while the Danish ships were agitated by the slightest 
motion. That their celerity might not be retarded by the addi- 
tional weight, he augmented the number of the rowers, and gave 
to all his vessels thirty, to several more than thirty oars on a side. 
This fleet was so judiciously disposed in the different harbours, 
that the marauding squadrons of the barbarians found it difficult 
to approach or to abandon the shore with impunity. 

From measures of defence against a foreign enemy, the king 
turned his attention to the domestic economy of the country. 



48 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 885. 

During the long period of Danish devastation, the fahric of civil 
government had been nearly dissolved. The courts of judicature 
had been closed, injuries were inflicted without provocation and 
retaliated without mercy; and the Saxon, like the Dane, had im- 
bibed a spirit of insubordination and a contempt for peace, and 

Alfred remedies justice, and religion. To remedy these evils, Al- 
foiiowedthe at iiwif- f rec * restored, enlarged, and improved the salutary 
iion of the Danes, institutions of his forefathers, and from the statutes 
of Ethelbert, Ina, Offa, and other Saxon princes, composed a 
code of law adapted to the circumstances of the time and the 
habits of his subjects. But legislative enactments would have 
been of little avail had not the king insured their execution by an 
undertaking of no small difficulty, but which, by his vigilance 
and perseverance, he ultimately accomplished. The Saxon juris- 
prudence had established an ample gradation of judicature, which 
diverged in different ramifications, from the king's court into 
every hamlet in the kingdom ; but of the persons invested with 
judicial authority very few were qualified for so important an 
office ; almost all were ignorant, many were despotic ; the power- 
ful refused to acquiesce in their decisions, and the defenceless 
complained of their oppression. Both had frequent recourse to 
the equity of Alfred, who listened as cheerfully to the complaints 
of the lowest as of the highest among his subjects. Every ap- 
peal was heard by him with the most patient attention ; in cases 
of importance he revised the proceeding at his leisure, and the 
inferior magistrates trembled at the impartiality and severity of 
their sovereign. If their fault proceeded from ignorance or in- 

Severity against advertence, they were reprimanded or removed, ac- 
corrupt judges. cording to the magnitude of the offence; but 
neither birth, nor friends, nor power could save the corrupt or 
malicious judge ; he was made to suffer the punishment which he 
had unjustly inflicted; and, if we may believe an ancient au- 
thority, forty-four magistrates were, by the king's order, executed 
in one year for their informal and iniquitous proceedings. This 
severity was productive of the most beneficial consequences ; the 
judges were careful to acquire a competent degree of knowledge; 
their decisions became accordant to the law ; the commission of 
crime was generally followed by the infliction of punishment, and 



885 A. D.] ALFRED THE GREAT. 49 



theft and murder were rendered as rare as they had formerly been 
prevalent. To prove the reformation of his subjects, Alfred is 
said to have suspended valuable bracelets on the highway, which 
no one ventured to remove ; and, as a confirmation, we are told 
that if a traveller lost his purse on the road, he would at the 
distance of a month find it lying untouched in the same spot. 
These are probably the fictions of a posterior age, but they serve 
to show the high estimation in which Alfred's administration of 
justice was held by our forefathers. 

The decline of learning in the Saxon states had been rapidly 
accelerated by the Danish invasions; the churches and monaste- 
ries, the only academies of the age, had been destroyed ; and at 
the accession of Alfred, Wessex could hardly boast of a single 
scholar able to translate a Latin book into the English tongue. 
The king, who from his early years had been animated with the 
most ardent passion for knowledge, endeavoured to nis efforts to re- 

• /» .1 ..... n 1 t , i . vive the condition 

infuse a similar spirit into all who aspired to his of literature. 
favour. For this purpose, he invited to his court the most dis- 
tinguished scholars of his own and of foreign countries. Pleg- 
mund and Werfrith, Ethelstan and Werwulf visited him from 
Mercia; John, of Old Saxony, left the monastery of Corbie for 
an establishment at Ethelingey ; Asser, of St. David's, was induced 
by valuable presents to reside with the king during six months in 
the year ; and an honourable embassy to Hincmar, archbishop 
of Rheinis, returned with Grimbald, the celebrated provost of St. 
Omer. With their assistance Alfred began, in his thirty-ninth 
year, to apply to the study of Roman literature, and opened 
schools in different places for the instruction of his subjects. It 
was his will that the children of every free man, whose circum- 
stances would allow it, should acquire the elementary arts of read- 
ing and writing ; and that those who were designed for civil or 
ecclesiastical employments should moreover be instructed in the 
Latin language. 

It was a misfortune which the king frequently lamented, that 
Saxon literature contained no books of science : " I have often 
wondered," says he, " that the illustrious scholars who once flou- 
rished among the English, and who had read so many foreign 
works, never thought of transferring the most useful into their 

5 



50 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 885 



He translates se- own language." To supply the deficiency, Alfred 
[he al s^xou 3 Ian- himself undertook the task. Of his translations, 
guage. two were historical and two didactic ; the first 

were the " Ecclesiastical History of the English/' by Bede, and 
the " Epitome" of Orosius, the best abridgment of ancient his- 
tory then extant; both works calculated to excite and gratify the 
curiosity of his subjects. Of the others, one was meant for ge- 
neral reading, " The Consolation of Philosophy," by Boetius, a 
treatise deservedly held in high estimation at that period, and 
the second was destined for the instruction of the clergy, the 
" Pastoral of Gregory the Great," a work recommended both by 
its own excellence and the reputation of its author. Of this he 
sent a copy to every bishop in his dominions, with a'request that 
it might be preserved in the cathedral for the use of the diocesan 

clergy. 

In the arrangement of his time, his finances, and his domestic 

The arrange- concerns, Alfred was exact and methodical; the 

merit of bis time, ft cers f n i s household were divided into three 

his finance and do- 

mestic concerns, bodies, which succeeded each other in rotation, 
and departed at the end of the month, the allotted period of their 
service ; of each day he gave one-third to sleep and necessary re- 
freshments, the remainder was divided between the duties of his 
station and works of piety and charity. His treasurer was 
ordered to separate his revenue into two moieties; the first he 
subdivided into three parts, of which one was destined to reward 
his servants and ministers, another to supply presents for the 
strangers who visited his court, and the third to pay the nume- 
rous bodies of workmen whom he employed. For he erected 
palaces in different parts of his dominions ; repaired and embel- 
lished those which had been left by his predecessors, and rebuilt 
London and several other towns which the Danes had reduced to 
heaps of ruins. In all these undertakings we are told that he 
displayed an improved taste, and considerable magnificence. 
Among his artists were numbers of foreigners, attracted by his 
offers and the fame of his liberality ; and by frequent conversa- 
tion with them, he is said to have acquired a theoretical acquaint- 
ance with their professions which astonished the most experienced 
workmen. The other moiety of his revenue was parcelled out 



901 A. D.] ALFRED THE GREAT. 51 



into four portions. One was devoted to the support of his school, 
his favorite project. Another was given to the two monasteries 
which he had founded, one at Shaftesbury for nuns, at the head 
of which he placed his daughter, Ethelgiva; another at Ethelin- 
gey for monks, which he peopled with foreigners, because the 
Danish devastations had abolished the monastic institute among 
his own subjects. The third portion he employed in relieving 
the necessities of the indigent, to whom on all occasions he was 
a most bountiful benefactor. From the fourth he drew the alms 
which he annually distributed to different churches. They were 
not confined to his own dominions, but scattered through "Wales, 
Northumbria, Armorica, and Gaul. Often he sent considerable 
presents to Rome, sometimes to the nations in the Mediterranean 
and to Jerusalem : on one occasion to the Indian Christians at 
Meliapour. Swithelm, the bearer of the royal alms, brought 
back to the king several oriental pearls and aromatic liquors. 

Alfred's prosperity was not destined to be unclouded in his 
latter years. In 893, the long peace which he had enjoyed was 
interrupted by Hastings, the most renowned of Hastings invades 
the sea-kings. This invader landed in Kent with ed by Alfred, 
a large force : Alfred marched against him, and after much la- 
bour and time succeeded in defeating him. Some of his soldiers 
settled in East Anglia and Northumbria, and the remainder re- 
turned to Normandy, where the colonists from the north of Eu- 
rope had acquired a firm footing. 

Alfred died on the 28th of October, in the year 901, leaving 
two sons and three daughters. He divided his Death of Alfred. 

, ., , . . . . . The division of his 

lands among his sons, daughters, nephews, cousin, lands. 
and wife; and left sums of money to the clergy, to the poor, 
and to the endowment of the church in which he would be in- 
terred. He strictly forbade his heirs from depriving of liberty 
those whom he had made free, directing that they should be per- 
mitted to serve any master they might choose. 



52 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A.D. 925. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Continued. 

Edward — Athelstan — Edmund — Edrei — Edwy — Edgar — Edward the Martyr — 
Ethelred— Edmund Ironside.— A. D. 901 to 1016. 

Alfred was succeeded by his second son, Edward, but his 
cousin, Ethelwald, opposed his claim. The witena-gemot, the 
great national assembly, overruled the pretensions of Ethelwald, 
and he took up arms ; the northern Danes assisted him, and he 
marched with a considerable army against Edward. In one of 
the battles which ensued, Ethelwald was killed, and Edward was 
left at rest to direct his attention to two objects which he had 
much at heart. These two objects, the union of Mercia with 
Wessex, and the subjugation of the northern Danes, he in the 
course of some years effected. Entering Mercia at the head of an 
Edward enters army, he took the reigning; sovereign, the princess 

Mercia and takes . . 

Eifwina prisoner. Elfwina, prisoner, sent her a captive to Wessex, 
abolished in Mercia all traces of separate government, and moulded 
the whole of the Saxon territories into one kingdom. Pursuing 
the same policy of conquest, he succeeded in subjugating almost all 
the Danish tribes to his control, and ultimately reduced the greater 
portion* of England to his sway, while the Scots acknowledged him 
for their chief, and the princes of Wales paid him tribute. He 
died in 925, having established many religious foundations, the 
most important of which was the monastery of Winchester. 
925. Athelstan; Edward left his crown by will to his son Athel- 

ealled the first mo- i ■,-, •, , , . , ,, n . , 

nareh of England, stan, who is called by historians the first monarch 
of England, because he extended his power over the entire of the 
island. He was crowned at Kingston, by Athelm, archbishop 
of Canterbury. When Sightric, the Danish king of Northum- 
berland, died, Athelstan invaded his territories, and the Danish 
princes fled. One of them, Anlaff, soon afterward having col- 
lected Scotch and Irish troops, returned and gave battle to Athel- 
stan at Brunanburgh, in Northumbria, where he was completely 



/ 



955 A. D.] ANGLO-SAXONS. 53 

routed, and Athelstan became monarch of all England. One 
of his sisters was married to Hugo, father of the founder of the 
royal line of Capet, in France. Athelstan died in 941, regretted 
by his subjects, and admired by surrounding nations. He was 
generous to the poor ; he erected numerous churches ; his chari- 
ties were extensive, and he labored hard to secure for all his 
subjects the blessing of an impartial administration of justice. 

Athelstan was succeeded by his brother, Edmund, who 
reigned six years, and was assassinated at a feast, by Leoff, 
an outlaw. The reign of Edmund was marked 941 Edmund . his 
by war with the Danes, who had taken arms reign is marked by 

J ' m his wars with the 

on the death of Athelstan, whose vigour had Danes, 
kept them in check. The war was varied in success, but ulti- 
mate victory fell to Edmund, and he transferred a large portion 
of the north of England to Malcolm, king of Scots. 

The children of Athelstan being too young, his brother, 
Edred, was chosen king. He reigned ten years. His reign 
was principally distinguished by the final sub- 946. Edred: he 
j ligation of Northumbria, which province rose br^ d ; Ue reign^ thU t?n' 
in arms at this period for the last time, and y eara - 
was again subdued. Edred divided Northumbria into shires, and 
gave to one of his generals, Osulf, the title of earl of Northum- 
berland. Much of the merit which historians attribute to Edred 
is due to his having followed the advice of his favorite ministers, 
Chancellor Turketul, and Dunstan, the abbot of Glastonbury. 
Turketul resigned the office of chancellor, and became abbot of 
the monastery at Croyland. Edred died after a reign of ten 
years, his constitution having been much enfeebled for a long 
time by a painful disease, from which he was scarcely ever free. 

The elder of Edmund's two sons, Edwy, who had in 945 
been passed over, as being too young for the throne, was 
now chosen king, by the unanimous voice of 955. Edwy; a 
the national council. Although not more than gate prince, 
seventeen years of age, Edwy's character was already marked by 
the violence of his passions. It is related that on the day of his 
coronation he abruptly left the company of the nobility and 
clergy, to keep an appointment with his favorite, Ethelgina, 
and her daughter, both of whom are accused by historians of 

5* 



54 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 959. 

having sought to ingratiate themselves dishonorably with the 
young king. The nobles were indignant that their monarch 
should leave them for such company, and, at their request, Abbot 
Dunstan and the bishop of Lichfield persuaded, or, as some say, 
compelled the king to return to the banquet. Edwy retained a 
feeling of revenge for the affront thus put upon him, and, at the 
instigation of Ethelgina, persecuted Dunstan, who fled from his 
rage to Flanders. Edwy married, but as he did not abandon 
Ethelgina, the archbishop of Canterbury sent her out of England : 
she returned soon afterward, and was taken by the Mercians, who 
had revolted, and she was put to death. Edwy, who fled from 
the Mercians, took refuge in Wessex ; and his brother, Edgar, 
being chosen king of Mercia, it was agreed upon that civil war 
should not be prolonged, but that the two brothers should reign at 
the same time, the Thames being the boundary of their respective 
dominions. Edwy died suddenly in 959, and the thanes of 
Wessex having offered the throne to Edgar, the two kingdoms 
were again united under the same monarch. 

One of the first measures of Edgar was to recall Dunstan 
from exile. The abbot was appointed to the vacant see of 
959. Edgar: he Worcester, subsequently to that of London, and 
recalls Dunstan. fi na lly was ma de archbishop of Canterbury. 
Edgar has received the title of " peaceful ;" as, during the 
sixteen years of his reign, he was never compelled to un- 
sheath the sword against either a foreign or domestic enemy. 
He frequently, however, displayed his military resources, for the 
purpose of checking any tendency to war which the Danes might 
possess. Every year he sailed round the island with a fleet of 
three hundred and sixty ships ; and this periodical parade had the 
effect of intimidating the northern chieftains. From the Welsh 
he exacted an annual tribute of the heads of three hundred 
wolves, instead of money ; and thus he rapidly caused the entire 
extirpation of that ferocious race of animals. Kenneth, king of 
Scots, visited Edgar, for the purpose of asking the province of 
Lothian for the Scottish crowm, and succeeded in his application. 
Edgar exhibited, in the internal administration of his kingdom, 
an example worthy of imitation ; he reformed abuses, dealt out 
equal justice to rich and poor, and removed any grievances of 



975 A. D.] ANGLO-SAXONS; 55 

which the people complained. He also devoted much of his 
attention to ecclesiastical affairs; and, assisted by the prelates, 
effected many improvements in church discipline. Edgar was 
not crowned until he had been thirteen years on the throne ; the 
ceremony was performed at Bath, with great splendor, and he 
afterward proceeded to Chester, where his barge was rowed down 
the Dee by eight tributary princes. Edgar died He died in 976. 

, , .-—J. J-1J6 story ruiutetl 

in 975, two years after his coronation. He was of Elfrida. 
twice married; and of his second wife, Elfrida, the following 
story is told by the historian, William of Malmesbury, but by 
many the narrative is only deemed to be a mere romantic fable. 
This writer narrates that Elfrida was possessed of unparalleled 
beauty and accomplishments, and that Edgar commissioned 
Ethelwold, the son of his foster-father, Athelstan, to visit El- 
frida's father, and report his opinion of the daughter. The 
heart of Ethelwold was captivated; he forgot his duty, wooed 
and married Elfrida; and, on his return, informed the king that 
although she might grace the house of a subject, she did not be- 
come the splendor of a throne. But the secret was quickly 
betrayed ; it reached the ears of the king, and he announced to 
his astonished favorite that he intended to visit the bride. 
Ethelwold now disclosed the whole transaction to his wife, and 
entreated her to conceal her beauty from the eyes of the king; 
but Elfrida had ceased to love; and he appeared to her in the 
light of an enemy, who had deprived her of a crown. She 
received the king in her gayest attire, and employed all her art to 
engage the affections of her royal guest. Edgar was convinced 
of the perfidy of Ethelwold, and though he disguised his feelings 
for a time, he soon afterward, when they were hunting together, 
ran his spear through his body, and married Elfrida. 

The two sons of Edgar were children at the time of 
their father's death : Edward, who was the elder of the two, 
was only thirteen, Ethelred was only seven. A 975. Edward the 

- , , _,. . . Martyr: he is as- 

strong party, at whose head was Elgiva, the sassinated. 
mother of Ethelred, opposed the accession of Edward ; but, 
aided by Dunstan, the latter was chosen king. The young 
prince did not sway the sceptre for more than about four 
years. One morning, as he was hunting, he stopped at 



56 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1003. 

Corfe Castle, the residence of his stepmother, Elgiva, and while 
drinking on horseback, he was stabbed by an assassin. He put 
spurs to his horse, but soon fell from the saddle through weak- 
ness, and, being dragged along by the stirrup, was killed. 

At the age of ten years, Ethelred, the son of Edgar and 
Elgiva, succeeded to the throne. His reign was long and 
978. Ethelred unfortunate. He never possessed the affection 
throne. of his subjects, and the northern pirates, hav- 

ing discovered that there was no sympathy between the people 
and the king, soon renewed their depredations. The horrors of 
invasion were aggravated by several years of scarcity, by a con- 
tagious disease among the cattle, and by a dysentery most fatal to 
the human species. For many years the war between the Danes 
and Saxons raged throughout the land with varying success. To 
rid himself of his inveterate enemies, Ethelred planned and 
executed a measure which will cover his name with everlasting 
infamy. His officers in the several towns and counties received 
secret orders from him to make arrangements in their respective 
lie orders a mas- localities for a general massacre of the Danes on a 
sacre of the Danes. certa i n day. The time fixed was the 13th of No- 
vember, 1003, the festival of St. Brice. On that day a mas- 
sacre of the Danes took place, aggravated by every insult and 
barbarity which national hatred could suggest. The Danish chief, 
Sweyn, on hearing of the massacre, in which one of the victims 
was his own sister, resolved on vengeance; and, in the following 
year, landed in England with a large force. For four years, war 
waged throughout England. Sweyn, having by numerous acts 
of fearful retaliation quenched his thirst for vengeance, consented 
to grant the Saxons peace, on receiving thirty-six thousand 
pounds of silver. 

As it was soon felt that the enormous sums given to the Danes 
had never purchased more than a temporary cessation of hostilities, 
Ethelred resolved to equip a large fleet for the permanent defence 
of the coast. Accordingly, a very large armament was collected at 
Sandwich, and the king in person took the command. Differences, 
however, soon broke out among the officers, one of whom sepa- 
rated from the fleet, taking with him twenty ships. A violent 
tempest destroyed a portion of the fleet, and the armament be- 



1016 A. D.] THE DANES. 57 

came useless. The Danes immediately reappeared on the coast, 
and recommenced their old system of plunder and massacre. 
Flushed with success, the Danes resolved on attempting not 
merely coasting depredations, but the conquest of the island. 
Several towns submitted to Sweyn ; and Ethelred, in despair, fled 
to Normandy, in 1014. Sweyn soon died, and Ethelred returned, 
and being welcomed by the Saxons, who had regained some of 
their old spirit, he reascended the throne. Canute, the son and 
successor of Sweyn, fled from England, but in the following year 
returned with a verv large force. Ethelred was He dies after a 

J ° . . calamitous reign, 

then confined to bed, and, as his constitution was in loie. 
broken^ he sank under this fresh stroke. His protracted and 
calamitous reign ended in 1016. 

When Ethelred died, his son Edmund was proclaimed king. 
He opposed Canute with courage and boldness. A treaty was 
agreed to. England was divided between Canute loie. Edmund 

° ° iTi Ironside is pro- 

and Edmund, but both kingdoms were obliged to claimed king. 
pay the tax known as Bane-geld. Edmund soon died, having 
reigned only seven months. Canute then became sole monarch 
of the entire kingdom. 



CHAPTER V. 

Canute— Harold Harefoot^-Hardlcanute.— A. D. 1016 to 1042. 

The first object of Canute was to strengthen his position on the 
throne. He feared the competition of Edward's children, and 
therefore sent them away to his half-brother, Olave, ioig. Canute: he 
king of Sweden. One of these children, Edmund, a ff e °t"ns° of" his 
died in his youth; the other, Edward, married English subjects. 
Agatha, daughter of the emperor of Germany. Canute married 
Emma, the widow of Ethelred : he laboured hard, by paying 
attention to the administration of the laws and by impartial 



58 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1040. 



conduct, to win the affections of his English subjects. Canute 
frequently visited Denmark, and in 1026 he made a pilgrimage 
to Rome. He became master of Norway by force of arms. He 
possessed the good sense to despise the flattery of those courtiers 
who wished to persuade him that his will could control even the 
elements. On one occasion, as he was sitting on the shore, near 
Southampton, he, to show the folly of his flatterers, commanded 
the sea to respect its sovereign ; the tide soon compelled him to 
retire, and he took the opportunity to read his flatterers a lecture 
on the weakness of earthly kings when compared with the power 
of that Supreme Being who rules the elements. Canute died in 
1035, leaving by Emma a son, Hardicanute, and a daughter, 
Gunihlda ; and by Alfgive two illegitimate sons, Sweyn and Ha- 
rold. Sweyn became king of Norway, and Harold, surnamed 
Harefoot, succeeded Canute on the throne of England. 

Although Harold was illegitimate, and although by marriage 
settlement Emma's children were to succeed Canute, yet the in- 

1035. Haroia fluence of a numerous and powerful party raised 
to a t r he°throneS Harold to the throne. Hardicanute claimed his 
dies in 1040. right, but civil war was averted by an arrangement 

which provided for a division of the kingdom. The sons of Emma 
by her first husband also claimed the throne, and one of them, 
Alfred, was tempted, by a forged letter of invitation, to come 
over from Normandy to assert his right; his troops were re- 
ceived in seeming friendship, but were soon taken prisoners, and 
almost all of them were put to a cruel death. Alfred was con- 
demned to lose his eyes, and died from the effect of his suffer- 
ings. Harold died in 1040, having reigned only four years. 

Emma had represented Hardicanute in England, as he was in 
Denmark, but when her son Alfred was killed, she fled to Bruges, 
and Harold had thus become the sole king in England. On re- 
io4o. Hardica- ceiving tidings of Harold's death, Hardicanute 
""i^edking^rejgns hastened to England, and was acknowledged as 
only two years. king. In revenge, he ordered Harold's tomb to be 
opened, and wreaked his vengeance on his lifeless remains. 
Hardicanute reigned only two years : he fell to the ground while 
drinking at a marriage festival. By his death the crowns of Den- 
mark and England were separated. 



1042 A. D.l SAXONS RESTORED. 59 

CHAPTER VI. 

itan fine %t$tmh 

Edward the Confessor— Harold the Second.— A. D. 1042 to 1066. 

On the death of Hardicanute, Edward, the son of Ethelred 
and Emma, succeeded to the throne, being called thereto by the 
voice of the citizens of London. The rightful heir was the son 
of Edmund Ironside, but he was in Hungary ; frequently, how- 
ever, had the English preferred the uncle to the nephew. Ed- 
ward at the period of his becoming king was about forty years of 
age, twenty-seven of which he had spent as an 1042. Edward the 
exile in Normandy; he had solaced the hours of ffi^nS 
banishment with the pleasures of the chase and ™ ar ™ s ^hn, 

•* daughter 01 the 

the exercises of religion, and he brought with him earl Godwin, 
to the throne those habits of moderation and tranquillity which 
he had acquired in a private station. To preserve peace and pro- 
mote religion — to enforce the ancient laws and to diminish the 
burdens of his people — were the chief objects of his government ; 
but he possessed not that energy of mind nor that ferocity of dis- 
position which perhaps would be necessary to command the re- 
spect and to repress the violence of the lawless nobles by whom 
he was surrounded. At Ethelred's accession, he found three 
powerful chieftains near the throne — Godwin, Leofric, and Si- 
ward. They possessed great power, and when united they were 
more than a match for the king, whose chief security lay in their 
mutual jealousies. The Danish families whose fidelity was doubt- 
ful were driven out of the kingdom. The treasures of the queen- 
mother were seized on account of her partiality to the Danes, and 
also because she was considered to have participated in the mur- 
der of Alfred, the brother of Edward ; she, however, was per- 
mitted to retain her dower, and resided at Winchester, where she 
died in the year 1052. 

Edward married in 1044, Editha, the daughter of Earl God- 
win. It was with reluctance Edward consented to this marriage : 



60 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1044 



he declared that Editha might enjoy the honors of a queen, but 
not the rights of a wife — a declaration interpreted by some to 
mean that he had bound himself to a life of continency, but attri- 
buted by others to his rooted antipathy to Godwin and his family. 
The hostile feeling which existed between the Danes and Nor- 
mans (many of whom were now honoured with Edward's friend- 
ship) soon broke out in open war. Forces led by Godwin, 
Sweyn, and Harold, (Editha's brother,) marched against some 
Normans in Herefordshire. Blood, however, was not shed, for 
the insurgent troops abandoned their leaders, and the chiefs fled. 
The queen was imprisoned, as her family had been foremost in 
the revolt. William, duke of Normandy, was invited to Eng- 
land by the Norman families who had settled in the country, but 
finding on his arrival that his services were not required, he 
landed simply as a visitor, was kindly received by the king, and 
was dismissed with magnificent presents. The insurgent earls, 
Godwin and Harold, requested to be admitted to Edward's friend- 
ship, and sailed to London from Flanders. They were received 
into the royal friendship, their titles were restored to them, and 
Editha was released from captivity. To Sweyn, Edward was in- 
exorable, as he had committed a deliberate murder ; and the mur- 
derer repenting, went as a pilgrim to Palestine, and died in the 
province of Lycia. Godwin, however, did not long survive the 
fall of his enemies. It is related that at table with the king he 
observed, as a servant stumbled, and then recovered himself with 
The remarkable one foot : " See how one brother helps another;" 
death of Godwin. and that Edward exclaimed, "Yes, and if my 
brother Alfred lived, he would now assist me." Godwin feeling 
the reproach, declared that he wished, if he were guilty of Al- 
fred's death, the next morsel he ate might kill him ; he put it 
into his mouth, and was choked. His earldom was given to his 
son Harold, the brother-in-law of the king. 

The only foreign war in which Edward engaged was against 
Macbeth, the usurper of the throne of Scotland. He assisted 
Malcolm to obtain the throne, to which he was by hereditary 
light entitled. Edward was obliged to send an army against the 
Welsh, who had begun to attack the English who lived on the 
borders. Harold, who commanded the troops, obtained nu- 



1066 A. D.] SAXONS RESTORED. 61 



merous victories over the Welsh, and these mountaineers re- 
mained quiet for a long period. 

Harold, by the course of events, was become the most powerful 
subject in England ; he aspired to the throne, and thus attracted 
the jealousy of William of Normandy, who had the same object 
in view. Harold was on one occasion accidentally thrown, by 
shipwreck, on the coast of Normandy. William exacted homage 
from him, as his future lord, and Harold swore that he would aid 
in promoting the succession of William to the throne of England, 
on the death of Edward. Harold, on returning to England, 
found himself obliged to suppress an insurrection among the 
Northumbrians, who had revolted against his brother, Tostig. 
The latter was obliged to fly to Bruges, as the insurrection had 
gained ground ; Harold succeeded in restoring tranquillity in the 
province, and returned to London. Edward died in a few weeks 
after Harold's return, having had the satisfaction of witnessing 
the' completion of Westminster Abbey, which had been the great 
object of his solicitude during his latter years, and in which he 
was buried with royal pomp, a few days after the building was 
dedicated. 

If we estimate the character of a sovereign by the test of 
popular affection, we must rank Edward among the best princes 
of his time. The goodness of his heart was The character of 
adored by his subjects, who lamented his death Edward, 
with tears of undissembled grief, and bequeathed his memory, as 
an object of veneration, to their posterity. The blessings of his 
reign are the constant theme of our ancient writers ; not, indeed, 
that he displayed any of those brilliant qualities which attract 
admiration while they inflict misery ; he could not boast of the 
victories which he had won, or of the conquests which he had 
achieved, but exhibited the interesting spectacle of a king negli- 
gent of his private interests, and totally devoted to the welfare of 
his people; and by his labors to restore the dominion of the 
laws, his vigilance to ward off foreign aggression, his constant 
and ultimately successful solicitude to appease the feuds of his 
nobles — if he did not prevent the interruption, he secured at 
least a longer duration of public tranquillity than had been 
enjoyed in England for half a century. He was pious, kind, 



62 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 10G6. 

and compassionate ; the father of the poor, and the protector of 
the weak ; more willing to give than to receive, and better pleased 
to pardon than to punish. Under the preceding kings, force 
generally supplied the place of justice, and the people were im- 
poverished by the rapacity of the sovereign; but Edward en- 
forced the laws of his Saxon predecessors, and disdained the 
riches which were wrung from the labors of his subjects. Tem- 
perate in his diet, unostentatious in his person, pursuing no plea- 
sures but those which his hawks and hounds afforded, he was con- 
tent with the patrimonial demesnes of the crown, and was able to 
assert, even after the abolition of that fruitful source of revenue, 
the Dane-gelt, that he possessed a greater portion of wealth than 
any of his predecessors had enjoyed. To him, the principle that 
the king can do no wrong, was literally applied by the gratitude 
of his people, who, if they occasionally complained of the mea- 
sures of the government, (and much reason they had to complain, 
on account of the appointment to bishoprics of aspiring and 
rapacious adventurers,) attributed the blame not to the monarch 
himself, of whose benevolence and piety they entertained no 
doubt, but to the ministers, who had abused his confidence or 
deceived his credulity. 

It was, however, a fortunate circumstance for the memory of 
Edward, that he occupied the interval between the Danish and 
Norman conquests; writers were induced to view his character 
with more partiality from the hatred with which they looked on 
his successors and predecessors ; they were foreigners, lie was a 
native ; they held the crown by concpuest, he by descent ; they 
ground to the dust the slaves whom they had made, he became 
known to his countrymen only by his benefits. Hence he ap- 
peared to shine with a purer light amid the gloom with which he 
was surrounded ; and whenever the people under the despotism 
of the Norman kings had an opportunity of expressing their real 
wishes, they constantly called for " the laws and customs of the 
good King Edward." 

On the death of Edward, the report was circulated that he had 
,„„„ tt ,,., appointed Harold as his successor, and he was 

10(j6. Harold the rl . . 7 # 

Second is proclaim- accordingly proclaimed king. William of Nor- 
feats hisbrother. mandy claimed from Harold the performance of 



106GA.D.] SAXONS RESTORED. 63 

his oath, but he replied that the oath had been extorted by force, 
and that he would not resign the crown to which he had been, by 
the free suffrages of the people, elected. Both then prepared for 
war. Harold had also to contend against his brother, Tostig, 
who sought to regain his power. Aided by Harald Hardrada, 
king of Norway, he invaded the north of England. Harold 
marched against the allied forces, and defeated them in the battle 
of Stamford Bridge, one of the most sanguinary engagements 
recorded in history. While rejoicing at this signal victory, 
Harold received intelligence that William of Normandy had 
landed on the coast of Sussex, with a large army. Harold pro- 
ceeded without delay to the south, and fought with William the 
memorable battle of Hastings, which terminated, in 1066, the 
Saxon and Danish power in England, and led to the establish- 
ment of the Norman dynasty, from which the present royal 
family is descended. 

The spot which he had selected for this important contest was 
called Senlac, nine miles from Hastings, an eminence opening to 
the south, and covered on the back by an extensive wood, [Octo- 
ber 14.] As his troops arrived, he posted them on the declivity, 
in one compact and immense mass. In the centre A description of 
waved the royal standard, the figure of a warrior Harm's »™y e b £ 
in the act of fighting, worked in threads of gold, Hastings. 
and ornamented with precious stones. By its side stood Harold, 
and his two brothers, Gurth and Leofwin, and around them the 
rest of the army, every man on foot. In this arrangement the 
king seems to have adopted, as far as circumstances would per- 
mit, the plan which had lately proved so fatal to the Norwegians, 
and which now, from the same causes, was productive of a similar 
result. Probably he feared the shock of the numerous cavalry 
of the Normans. Both men and horses were completely cased in 
armour, which gave to their charge an irresistible weight, and 
rendered them almost invulnerable to ordinary weapons. For 
the purpose of opposing them with more chance of success, 
Harold had brought with him engines to discharge stones into 
their ranks, and had recommended his soldiers to confine them- 
selves, in close fight, to the uso of the battle-axe — a heavy and 
murderous weapon. 



64 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1066. 



On the opposite hill, William was employed in marshalling hia 

host. In the front he placed the archers and bowmen; the 

The arrange- second line was composed of heavy infantry, 

ment of William's . . - . . .. i-ii-ti 1 

army. clothed in coats ot mail; and behind these the 

duke arranged, in five divisions, the hope and the pride of the 
Norman force, the knights and men-at-arms. That he would 
strive, both by words and actions, to infuse into this multitude 
of warriors, from different nations, an ardor similar to his own, 
is not improbable; but the two harangues which William of 
Poitou and Henry of Huntingdon have put into his mouth, may, 
with equal probability, be attributed to the ingenuity of the 
writers. This only we know from himself, that in the hearing of 
his barons, he made a solemn vow to God, that, if he gained the 
victory, he would found a church for the common benefit of all 
his followers. About nine in the morning the army began to 
move, crossed the interval between the two hills, and slowly 
ascended the eminence on which the English were posted. The 
papal banner, as an omen of victory, was carried in the front by 
Toustain the Fair — a dangerous honor, which two of the Nor- 
man barons had successively declined. 

At the moment when the armies were ready to engage, the 
Normans raised the national shout of " God is our help," which 
was as loudly answered by the adverse cry of " Christ's rood, the 
holy rood." The archers, after the discharge of their arrows, 
retired to the infantry, whose weak and extended line was unable 
The battle of *° make any impression on their more numerous 
Hastings. opponents. William ordered the cavalry to 

charge. The shock was terrible, but the English, in every point, 
opposed a solid and impenetrable mass. Neither buckler nor 
corslet could withstand the stroke of the battle-axe, wielded by a 
powerful arm and with unerring aim ; and the confidence of the 
Normans melted away at the view of their own loss, and the 
bold countenance of their enemies. After a short pause, the 
horse and foot of the left wing betook themselves to flight; their 
opponents eagerly pursued, and a report was spread that William 
himself had fallen. The whole army began to waver; when the 
duke, with his helmet in his hand, rode along the line, exclaim- 
ing, "I am still alive, and, with the help of God, I still shall 



1066 A. D.] SAXONS RESTORED. 65 



conquer." The presence and confidence of their commander 
revived the hopes of the Normans ; and the speedy destruction 
of the English who had pursued the fugitives, was fondly mag- 
nified into an assurance of victory. These brave but incautious 
men had, on their return, been intercepted by a numerous body 
of cavalry, and on foot and in confusion, they quickly disap- 
peared beneath the swords, or rather the horses, of the enemy. 
Not a man survived the carnage. 

William led his troops again to the attack ; but the English 
column, dense and immovable as a rock amid the waves, re- 
sisted every assault. Disappointed and perplexed, the Norman 
had recourse to a stratagem, suggested by his success in the 
earlier part of the day. He ordered a division of horse to 
flee ; they were pursued, and the temerity of the pursuers was 
punished with instant destruction. The same feint was tried 
with equal success in another part of the field. These losses 
might diminish the numbers of the English, but the main body 
obstinately maintained its position, and bade defiance to every 
effort of the Normans. 

During the engagement, William had given the most signal 
proofs of personal bravery. Three horses had been killed under 
him ; and he had been compelled to grapple on foot The bravery of 
with his adversaries. Harold also had animated row. 
his followers, both by word and example, and displayed a courage 
worthy of the crown for which he was fighting. His brothers, 
Gurth and Leofwin, had perished already ; but as long as he sur- 
vived, no man entertained the apprehension of defeat, or admitted 
the idea of flight. A little before sunset, an arrow, shot at ran- 
dom, entered his eye. He instantly fell ; and the The death of Ha- 
knowledge of his fall relaxed the efforts of the featof the English. 
English. Twenty Normans undertook to seize the royal banner, 
and effected their purpose, but with a loss of half their number. 
One of them, who maimed with his sword the dead body of the 
king, was afterward disgraced by William for his brutality. At 
dusk the English broke up, and dispersed through the wood. The 
Normans followed their track by the light of the moon, when 
ignorance of the country led them to a spot intersected with 
ditches, into which they were precipitated, in the ardor of pur- 



66 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1066 



suit. The fugitives, recalled by the accident, inflicted a severe 
vengeance on their adversaries. As William, attracted by the 
cries of the combatants, was hastening to the place, he met 
Eustace of Boulogne and fifty knights, fleeing with all their 
speed : he called on them to stop ; but the earl, while he was in 
the act of whispering into the ear of the duke, received a stroke 
on the back, which forced the blood out of his mouth and nos- 
trils. He was carried, in a state of insensibility, to his tent. 
William's intrepidity hurried him forward to the scene of 
danger. His presence encouraged his men; succours arrived: 
and the English, after an obstinate resistance, were repulsed. 

Thus ended this memorable and fatal battle. On the side of 
the victors almost sixty thousand men had been engaged, and 
more than one-fourth were left on the field. The number of the 
vanquished and the amount of their loss are unknown. By the 
vanity of the Norman historians, the English army has been 
The number of exaggerated be} r ond the limits of credibility ; by 
humanity of wiT- tnat °f tne nat ive writers it has been reduced to a 
liam - handful of resolute warriors ; but both agree, that 

with Harold and his brothers perished all the nobility of the 
south of England — a loss which could not be repaired. The 
king's mother begged, as a boon, the dead body of her son, and 
offered, as a ransom, its weight in gold ; but the resentment of 
William had rendered him callous to pity, and insensible to all 
interested considerations. He ordered the corpse of the fallen 
monarch to be buried on the beach, adding, with a sneer : " He 
guarded the coast while he was alive ; let him continue to guard 
it after death." By stealth, however, or by purchase, the royal 
remains were removed from this unhallowed site, and deposited 
in the church of Waltham, which Harold had founded before he 
ascended the throne. 



1066 A. D.] ANGLO-SAXONS— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 67 
CHAPTER VII. 

ItanwrB an& Customs af t\)t Jtoglor-jtatts. 

Every account of the civil polity of the Anglo-Saxons must 
necessarily be imperfect, as we can only view the subject through 
the intervening gloom of eight centuries. The Saxons introduced 
into England the institutions to which they had been habituated 
in their original settlements, and modified as circumstances sug- 
gested. We shall here present the most prominent points, re- 
ferring the advanced historical student to the chapter on Anglo- 
Saxon customs in Dr. Lingard's work. 

Of Saxon institutions, the most important, and that which 
formed the groundwork of the rest, may be discovered among 
the Germans in the age of Tacitus. From him we Saxon institn- 
learn that every chieftain was surrounded by a tl0ns- 
number of retainers, who did him honour in time of peace, and 
accompanied him to the field in time of war. To fight by his 
side they deemed an indispensable duty j to survive his fall, an 
indelible disgrace. It was this artificial connection — this prin- 
ciple which reciprocally bound the lord to his vassal, and the 
vassal to his lord — that held together the northern hordes when 
they issued forth in quest of adventure. They retained it in their 
new homes, and its consequences were gradually developed, as 
each tribe made successive advances in power and civilization. 
Hence, in process of time, and by gradual improvements, grew up 
the feudal system, with its long train of obligations, of homage, 
suit, service, purveyance, reliefs, wardships, and scutage. That 
it was introduced into England by the Norman conqueror, is the 
opinion of respectable writers ; and the assertion may be true, if 
they speak of it only in its mature and most oppressive form ; but 
all the primary germs of the feudal services may Feudal system: 

i i . t ,10 -i - . its introduction in- 

be descried among the Saxons, even in the earlier to England, 
periods of their government ; and many of them flourished in full 
luxuriance long before the extinction of the dynasty. 

The feudal doctrine was, that of all the ties which nature has 



68 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1066 

formed or society invented, the most sacred was that which 
bound together the lord and the vassal. By Alfred the breach 
of this solemn engagement was punished as a crime of the most 
disgraceful and unpardonable character — the offender suffering 
forfeiture and death. The obligations were reciprocal : the vassal 
served the lord, and the lord protected the vassal. The contract 
was cemented by oath, and was for the benefit of each. 

The distinction of ranks among the Anglo-Saxons was (with 
a few shades of accidental difference) the same as in other nations 
of Gothic origin. The free population was divided into the eorl, 

Distinction of or noble > and . the ceorI > or ig noble - Tb - e cyning, 
rank among the or king, occupied the first place : he was lord of the 

Anglo-Saxons : the . . ' .... . x , 

eori, ceori, and cy- principal cnieitams, and, through them, of their 
vassals. The great tenants of the crown were sum- 
moned at Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas, to pay homage to 
the king. They appeared before him as dependants, while he was 
seated on his throne, with the crown on his head, and the sceptre 
in his hand. During eight days they feasted at his expense, and 
received presents on their dismissal. He exercised authority 
over the national forces by sea and land. He was supreme judge, 
and revised appeals from every court of judicature. 

After the royal family, ranked the ealdormen or earls. They 
governed districts called, then and still, their shires. Sometimes 
one powerful earl governed several shires. The earl led the men 
of the shire to battle, presided with the bishop in the courts of 
the shire, and enforced the administration of the laws. The thanes 
were a numerous and distinguished order of men, 

Thanes and reeves. . ii-rr iii-rr • -i 

who possessed different rank and dmerent privileges. 
There were thanes of the king, called greater thanes, and thanes 
of the ealdormen, called lesser thanes. The reeves, shire-reeve, (or 
sheriff,) port-reeve, and borough-reeve, were men appointed by 
the king to carry out the details of the administration of the law. 
Among a people but lately emerged from barbarism, the ad- 
ministration of justice is always rude and simple ; and though the 
absence of legal forms and pleading may casually insure a prompt 
and equitable decision, it is difficult without their aid to oppose 
the arts of intrigue and falsehood, or the influence of passion or 
prejudice. The proceedings before the Anglo-Saxon tribunals 
would not have suited a more advanced state of civilization : they 



10G6A. D.] ANGLO-SAXONS— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 69 
were ill calculated to elicit truth, or to produce con- Proceedings be- 

n . . i'ii i f° re Anglo Saxon 

viction ; and m many instances which have been tribunals, 
recorded by contemporary writers, our more correct or more arti- 
ficial notions will be shocked at the credulity or precipitancy of 
the judges. The subject, however, is curious and interesting. 
These ancient courts still exist under different names, and the in- 
telligent observer may discover in their proceedings the origin of 
several institutions which now mark the administration of justice 
in the English tribunals. 

In all the Anglo-Saxon tribunals the judges were the free 
tenants, owing suit to the court, and afterward called its peers. 
But the real authority seems to have resided in the president, and 
the principal of his assessors, whose opinion was generally echoed 
and applauded by the rest of the members. Their proceedings 
were simplified and facilitated by a custom which has already been 
mentioned. In all cases in which property, whether real or per- 
sonal, was concerned ; if a man claimed by gift or purchase ; if 
stolen goods were found in his possession, or he had forcibly en- 
tered on the lands of others, he was bound to produce the testi- 
mony of the court and witnesses before whom the transaction, on 
which he grounded his own right, must, if it had been lawful, 
have taken place. On this testimony in civil actions, the judges 
frequently decided; but if either party advanced assertions of 
such a nature that they could not be proved by evidence, he was 
put on his oath, and was ordered to bring forward certain free- 
holders, his neighbours, acquainted with his character and con- 
cerns, who should swear that in their consciences they believed 
his assertion to be true. The number of these was in many 
cases fixed by the law, in others, left to the discretion of the court. 
If the matter still remained doubtful, it became usual to select a 
jury of free tenants, who left the court, deliberated among them- 
selves, and returned a verdict, which decided the question. 

In criminal prosecutions, the proceedings, though grounded on 
the same principles, were in many respects different. It was 
ordered by law, that as soon as the hundred-mote was assembled, 
(the same probably held with respect to other simi- i n criminal pro- 
lar tribunals,) the reeve, with the twelve oldest secution - 
thanes, should go out to inquire into all offences committed with- 
in the jurisdiction of the court, and should be sworn " not to 



70 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1066 



foresay (present) any one who was innocent, not to conceal any 
one who was guilty." On their presentment, or on the accusation 
of the prosecutor and his witnesses, the prisoner was frequently 
condemned ; if any doubt existed, his plea of not guilty was ad- 
mitted, and after his lord had been called on to speak to his cha- 
racter on oath, he was at liberty to prove his innocence by the 
purgation of lada, or swearing, or the ordeal, or judgment of God. 
In the purgation by oath, he began by calling on God to witness 

Purgation iiy that he was innocent both in word and work of the 
oath - crime laid to his charge. He then produced his 

compurgators, who swore that " they believed his oath to be up- 
right and clean." It was required that these compurgators or 
jurors should be his neighbours, or resident within the jurisdic- 
tion of the court, freeholders who had never been arraigned for 
theft, nor ever convicted of perjury, and who were acknowledged 
for " true men" by all present. Their number dhTered according 
to the custom of the district, and was always increased if the 
testimony of the lord were wanting, or had proved unfavourable. 
They were sometimes appointed by the judges, sometimes drawn 
by lot, often brought into the court by the party himself — an in- 
dulgence which enabled him to rest his fate on the decision of his 
friends and dependants, whom he might already have prejudiced 
in his favour. In "Wessex, he was permitted to chose thirty 
jurors, of whom fifteen were rejected by the judges; in East 
Anglia and Northumbria, he produced forty-eight, out of whom 
twenty-four were appointed by ballot. If they corroborated his 
oath by their own, in the form established by law, his innocence 

Purgation by or- was acknowledged. If, on the contrary, recourse 
deaL was had to the ordeal, pledges were given for the 

trial, and the time was fixed by the court. As the decision was 
now left to the Almighty, three days were spent by the accused 
in fasting and prayer. On the third day, he was adjured by the 
priest not to go to the ordeal, if he were conscious of guilt ; he 
was then communicated with these words : " May this body and 
blood of Christ be to thee a proof of innocence this day •" after 
which he again swore that he was guiltless of the crime of which 

Ordeals by water ne had been accused. The ordeals which were 
and by nre. most in use were those by hot water and fire. For 

the former a fire was kindled under a cauldron, in a remote part 



1066 A. D.] ANGLO-SAXONS— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 71 

of the church. At a certain depth below the surface, which was 
augmented in the absence of a favourable character from the lord, 
was placed a stone or piece of iron, of a certain weight. Strangers 
were excluded; the accuser and the accused, each attended by 
twelve friends, proceeded to the spot; and the two parties were 
arranged in two lines opposite each other. After the litanies had 
been recited, a person was deputed from each line to examine 
the cauldron, and if they agreed that the water boiled, and the 
stone was placed at the proper depth, the accused advanced, 
plunged in his arm, and took out the weight. The priest imme- 
diately wrapped a clean linen cloth around the part which was 
scalded, fixed on it the seal of the Church, and opened it again 
on the third day. If the arm was perfectly healed, the accused 
was pronounced innocent; if not, he suffered the punishment of 
his offence. In the ordeal by fire, the same precautions were em- 
ployed in respect of the number and position of the attendants. 
Near the fire a space was measured, equal to nine of the prisoner's 
feet, and divided by lines into three equal parts. By the first 
stood a small stone pillar. At the beginning of the mass, a bar 
of iron of the weight of one or three pounds, was laid on the 
fire ; at the last collect it was taken off, and placed on the pillar. 
The prisoner immediately grasped it in his hand, made three steps 
on the lines previously traced on the floor, and threw it down. 
The treatment of the burn, and the indication of guilt or inno- 
cence, were the same as those in the ordeal by hot water. 

The crimes to which the Anglo-Saxons were principally addicted 
were homicide and theft. The right to inflict punishment de- 
volved upon the family of the slain. The state The crimes of ho 

1 . ^ . . micide and theft: 

affixed a certain were or pecuniary compensation their punishment, 
for murder, according to the rank of the deceased. When the 
murderer was taken, (and to his arrest many difficulties were op- 
posed, on account of the existence of places of sanctuary,) he 
could not be put to death for thirty days. If he by that time 
failed to pay or give good security for the were, he might be put 
to death by the relatives of the murdered man. If he gave se- 
curity, the parties who guaranteed payment handed over the 
amount, in several instalments, to the relatives, and also paid to 
the immediate lord of the deceased, and to the king. Robbery 



72 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1066. 



was a very general crime, although very severe laws were made 
to check it, and were rigidly enforced. 

The sale and purchase of slaves publicly prevailed during the 
whole of the Anglo-Saxon period. These unhappy men were 

Slavery among so ^ l^e cattle in the market, and there is reason 
the Anglo-Saxons. ^ k e li e y e that a slave was usually estimated at 
four times the price of an ox. To the importation of foreign 
slaves no impediment had ever been opposed ; the export of na- 
tive slaves was forbidden under severe penalties. But habit and 
the pursuit of gain had taught the Northumbrians to bid defiance 
to all the efforts of the legislature. Like the savages of Africa, 
they are said to have carried off not only their own countrymen, 
but even their friends and relatives, and to have sold them as 
slaves in the ports of the continent. The men of Bristol were 
the last to abandon this nefarious traffic. Their obstinancy 
yielded, however, not to the severity of the magistrates, but the 
zeal of Wulstan, bishop of Worcester. That prelate visited 
Bristol several years successively; resided for months together in 
the neighbourhood ; and preached on every Sunday against the 
barbarity and irreligion of the dealers in slaves. At last the 
merchants were convinced by his reasons, and in their guild 
solemnly bound themselves to renounce the trade. One of the 
members was soon afterward tempted to violate his engagement : 
his perfidy was punished with the loss of his eyes. 

From the population of the country, we may pass to the inha- 
bitants of the cities and boroughs, of which a few perhaps might 

The population be of recent origin, having sprung up under the 
boroughs. *" protection of some powerful chieftain or celebrated 

monastery; but the greater part had existed from the time of 
the Romans, and successively passed into the hands of the Bri- 
tons, Saxons, and Northmen. Of these, the more early history 
is lost in the gloom of ages : it is only toward the close of the 
Anglo-Saxon dynasty that we are able to discover some, and those 
but imperfect traces of their municipal polity, which seems to 
have been founded on the same principles as that which prevailed 
in the surrounding country. In both we discover the lord and 
the tenant ; the lord with his reeve, his court, his right of tallage, 
and his receipt of rents, and fines, and forfeitures; and on the 
other hand, the tenant holding of the lord by every variety of 



1066 A. D.] ANGLO-SAXONS— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 73 

service, from that which was deemed honourable, to the lowest 
and most debasing. In the towns, however, this principle was 
variously modified, to meet the wants and conveniences of large 
masses of men congregated on one spot ; and hence it happened 
that their inhabitants gradually acquired advantages denied to 
their equals in the country. They possessed the benefit of a 
market for the sale of their wares and merchandise ; they were 
protected by their union and numbers from the depredations of 
robbers and banditti ; and (which subsequently proved to them a 
source of incalculable benefit) they formed one body politic, with 
common rights and common interests. They had their hall or 
hanse-house, in which they met and deliberated; they exercised 
the power of enacting by (or borougli) laws for the government 
and improvement of 'the borough ; and they possessed by lease or 
purchase, houses, pasture, and forest lands, for the common use 
and benefit of the whole body. This gradually led to the eman- 
cipation of the inhabitants, for the lords chiefly valued their own 
rights on account of the income derived from them; and, there- 
fore, they felt no objection to transfer the exercise of such rights 
to the burgesses themselves, in return for a large sum of money, 
or for a yearly rent during a certain term. Of such bargains, 
there are many instances in Domesday. 

The larger towns were divided into districts, called in some 
places " wards," in some, " shires," and in others, " ferlings," 
or "quarters." Among the inhabitants, we meet The division of 
with men of considerable wealth and influence, the larger towns, 
holding over their own property in the borough, and transmitting 
with it to their heirs the enviable jurisdiction of sac and soc. 
They had also their guilds or companies, consisting in some, and 
probably in all instances, of men of the same trade or profession, 
and possessing common property, and a common hall, for the 
purposes both of consultation and entertainment. 

The principal magistrate was the provost, called the wic-reeve, 
to distinguish him from the shire-reeve, or reeve of the county. 
Whether he owed his situation to the nomination The j;»«-r«. 
of the lord, or to the choice of the burgesses, is duty, 
perhaps a doubtful question. The wic-reeve of the more popu- 
lous towns is always mentioned as an officer of great importance, 
and sometimes numbered among the noblest in the land. It was 
E 7 



^ 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1066. 



his duty to collect the revenue of the king or lord, to watch over 
his interests, and to exercise within the limits of the borough the 
same authority which the sheriff exercised within the shire. 
From the manner in which London, Winchester, York, Exeter, 
and some other places are casually mentioned by the most ancient 
chroniclers, it is plain that the inhabitants formed distinct bodies 
of men, not only possessing forms of municipal government, but 
also exercising considerable influence in matters of state. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

WSMm t\t .first 

CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS 



Popes. 


Scotland. 


France. 


Alexander III. 


Malcolm III. 


Philip I. 


Gregory VII. 




Spain. 


Victor III. 


Germany. 


Sancho II. 




Henry IV. 


Alphonso VI. 



William is crowned — Goes to Normandy — Returns to England — Subjects 
and oppresses the Natives — Insurrection of the Normans — Rebellion of 
Robert, his son — His War with France — His Death and Character. — From 
A. D. 1066 to 1087. 

William the First, known in history as " the Conqueror," 

was the illegitimate son of Robert II., duke of Normandy, and 

wmiam the First Herleva, daughter of an officer of the duke's 

begins his reign. . . ? , . ., . , 

a. d. 1066. household. Although not born in wedlock, he 

was acknowledged duke by the Norman barons, on the death of 
his father, and afterward maintained his position by the sword. 
He married Matilda, the daughter of Baldwin of Flanders. 

After the battle of Hastings, William, having secured Dover 
and some other important places, marched on London. The city 
had been fortified against him, and the Londoners had placed 
Edgar, surnamed u the etheling," (meaning that he was of royal 
descent,) on the throne. William did not storm the walls, being 
either afraid of failure or unwilling to exasperate the citizens. 



10G9 A. D.] WILLIAM THE FIRST. 75 

He laid waste the adjacent counties ; and the Londoners, fearing 
his power, sent a deputation to hiin, with an offer of the crown, 
which he, after some appearance of hesitation, accepted. On the 
day of his coronation, when the representatives of Dreadful mas- 
the Normans and of the Saxons in Westminster ^the^y of °his 
Abbey were asked if they would have William for coronation, 
king, the response was so loud that the Norman guards outside 
thought, or pretended to think, that strife had commenced within, 
and immediately began to plunder the neighboring houses and 
massacre the people. William refused to allow the ceremony to 
be interrupted, although he was left alone with the clergy; for 
the laity of both nations rushed from the abbey on hearing of 
the events outside. William expressed much regret at the con- 
duct of his troops, and issued stringent orders, having for their 
object the protection of the people from the soldiery. He also 
gave directions to all whom he appointed to public duties to act 
toward the English in a spirit of conciliation. He received 
several Saxon chiefs at his court, and paid particular attention to 
Edgar, on whom he bestowed an extensive property, as some com- 
pensation for the loss of his crown. 

According to feudal customs, soldiers only served for a limited 
period, and several Normans were anxious to return to their own 
country. William feared that to permit this would lessen his 
power in England, and he accordingly made grants of estates to 
the Norman chieftains, who promised to remain with their fol- 
lowers. He himself crossed over to Normandy, to wniiam goes to 
receive the congratulations of the Normans on his Normandy, 
winning a crown. In his absence from England he intrusted the 
government to Fitzosborn, a Norman leader, and to Archbishop 
Odo, who was William's half-brother. Their severe mode of go- 
vernment drove the English into revolt. The The Eng i; gn re . 
king returned, and with much trouble crushed the volt 
insurrection. The siege of Exeter alone cost him eighteen days, 
and even then the inhabitants obtained lenient terms. The king 
about this time sent for his wife, Matilda, and she was crowned 
queen-consort of England. William had to contend with very 
formidable risings in the north. A Danish fleet, under Canute, 
the son of Sveno, sailed up the Humber in 1069, and succeeded 
in taking York and defeating the Normans. The ancient 



76 HISTOKY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1075. 

cathedral of York was accidentally burned shortly before the 
engagement. 

When William heard of the defeat of his troops at York, he 
swore that he would have vengeance, and he marched with a 
large army to the north. He took York, and then proceeded to 
execute a system of revenge which has covered his name with 
deep disgrace. He dispersed his followers through the country, 
with orders to spare neither man nor beast, and also to destroy 
houses, corn, implements of husbandry, and what- 

He suppresses . -i , 

the revolt, and in- ever might be useful for the support of human life, 
geance on the in- His terrible orders were obeyed with fearful accu- 
racy. It is said that one hundred thousand of the 
inhabitants fell victims to William's barbarous commands, and that 
the north of England for a long period presented the appearance 
of desolation and ruin. The English chieftains no longer opposed 
the power of William ; risings, which had been general, ceased ; 
but the king no longer wore the appearance of friendship to any 
of the natives. He carefully excluded them from all places of 
honour, emolument, or trust, and gave their lands to his fol- 
lowers. He soon afterward entered Scotland, in order to punish 
Malcolm, who had assisted his enemies ; he overthrew the Scot- 
tish king, who threw himself on the mercy of the conqueror, and 
was permitted to retain his crown as vassal of the king of Eng- 
land. Edgar the etheling, whose sister was married to Malcolm, 
was at this time in Scotland. In endeavoring to cross over to 
France, he was wrecked on the coast of England. He sought a 
renewal of friendship with William, (from whom he had been 
estranged when the Normans became severe to the natives,) and 
William received him in a spirit of reconciliation, granting him a 
residence and a handsome pension. In 1086 this prince went to 
the Holy Land with two hundred knights. 

William crossed over to Normandy in 1075, and during his 
absence some Norman barons in England, who had received 
smaller rewards than they considered themselves entitled to, rose 
Rebellion in Eng- in rebellion. William returned, and soon put 
Lteencf 1n s No! down tne insurrection. A Saxon noble, Waltheof, 
mandy. was p U t, to death for not having divulged the con- 

spiracy, of which he was cognizant, though he took no part in the 



1085 A. D.] WILLIAM THE FIRST. 77 

rebellion. William next led an army into Wales, and completely 
confirmed his power in that country. 

In 1085, Canute, the son of Sveno, determined to claim the 
crown of England, as successor of his namesake, and being as- 
sisted by several northern powers, he collected a large fleet, in 
order to carry into execution his ambitious designs. Circum- 
stances delayed the completion of his preparations, and a mutiny 
broke out in his fleet, the consequence of which was that the in- 
tended expedition was abandoned. 

The last years of William's life were imbittered by dissensions 
among his sons. Robert (the eldest) was, when a boy, invested 
with the nominal government of Normandy, under Matilda, his 
mother ; and when he grew up and claimed the duchy as a right, 
William gave him a peremptory refusal. Robert's hot temper 
received additional excitement from his brothers, William and 
Henry, who one day emptied a pitcher of water on his head from 
a balcony. Robert, in anger, rushed up stairs to attack his 
brothers, sword in hand; the king came to the spot, and sepa- 
rated his sons. Robert withdrew, and commenced Robert rebels 
to levy war upon his father, whom he considered a sainst his father, 
as partial to the younger princes. Having been defeated, he 
wandered throughout France for five years, and at last settled in 
the castle of Gerberoi, which he had received from the king of 
France. William besieged the castle, and it is related that during 
the siege the father and son were, on one occasion, engaged in 
single combat, without knowing each other. Robert wounded 
his father. William soon withdrew, not being able to take the 
castle, and through the mediation of Matilda, the father and son 
became reconciled. 

Excessive corpulence rendered it necessary for William to sub- 
mit to a course of medicine, and he was confined to his bed for 
part of the last year of his life. When he recovered he carried 
war into the territories of the king of France, who William declares 
had spoken deridingly of William's illness. He king of France, 
took the tower of Mantes, and set it on fire. William's horse 
trod on some hot ashes, and making an effort to extricate himself, 
he threw the king violently on the pommel of the saddle. Wil- 
liam received a wound, which in a few weeks proved fatal. 
During his last illness he assembled his prelates and barons, and 

7* 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A.D. 1087. 



bequeathed Normandy to Robert, as that territory was William's 
by descent. To England he said he had no title but that which 
the sword gave him, and he would leave the decision as to who 
should rule that country to God ; but he hoped that his second 
son, William, would obtain it. To Henry, his youngest son, he 
left five thousand crowns ; and when be complained of the com- 
parative smallness of his portion, the king told him (and it 
proved to be a prophetic statement) to remain quiet, and that he 
would in time possess the portions of both his brothers. The 
king was advised to order the liberation of the prisoners whom he 
wuiiain dies, ne ^ m custody, and with some reluctance he con- 
1087 - sented. On the 9th September, 1087, in the city 

of Rouen, William the Conqueror, whose memorable life caused 
so important an alteration in the affairs of Europe, breathed his 
last. He died saying, " I commend my soul to my Lady, the 
Mother of God, that by her prayers she may reconcile me to her 
Son, my Lord Jesus Christ." 

The king was of ordinary stature, but inclined to corpulency. 
His countenance wore an air of ferocity, which, when he was 
agitated by passion, struck terror into every beholder. The story 
told of his strength at one period of life almost 
exceeds belief. It is said, that sitting on horse- 
back, he could draw the string of a bow which no other man 
could bend even on foot. Hunting formed his favorite amuse- 
ment. The reader has seen the censure passed upon him for his 
deer-friths and game-laws ; nor will he think it undeserved, if he 
attend to the following instance. Though the king possessed 
sixty-eight forests, besides parks and chases, in different parts of 
England, he was not satisfied, but for the occasional accommoda- 
tion of his court, afforested an extensive tract of country lying 
between the Avon and the bay of Southampton. The inhabitants 
were expelled ; the cottages and the churches were burnt ; more 
than thirty square miles of arable land were withdrawn from cul- 
tivation, and the whole district was converted into a wilderness, 
to afford sufficient range for the deer, and ample space for the 
royal diversion. The memory of this act of despotism has been 
perpetuated in the name of the New Forest, which it retains at 
the present day, after the lapse of seven hundred and fifty years. 
William's education had left on his mind religious impressions 



1087 A. D.] WILLIAM THE FIRST. 79 



which were never effaced. When, indeed, his power or interest 
was concerned, he listened to no suggestions but those of ambi- 
tion or of avarice, but on other occasions he displayed a strong 
sense of religion, and a profound respect for its institutions. He 
daily heard the mass of his private chaplain, and was regular in 
his attendance at the public worship. In the com- His respect for 
pany of men celebrated for holiness of life, he laid Jg&ftX t ™$* 
aside that haughty demeanor with which he was men - 
accustomed to awe the most powerful of his barons. He will- 
ingly concurred in the deposition of his uncle, Malger, arch- 
bishop of Rouen, who disgraced his dignity by the immorality of 
his conduct j and showed that he knew how to value and recom- 
pense virtue, by endeavoring to place in the same church the 
monk Guitmond, from whom he had formerly received so severe 
a reprimand. On the decease of a prelate, he appointed officers 
to protect the property of the vacant archbishopric or abbey, and 
named a successor with the advice of the principal clergy. Lan- 
franc, in his numerous struggles against the rapacity of the Nor- 
mans, was constantly patronized by the king, who appointed him, 
with certain other commissioners, to compel the sheriffs of the 
several counties to restore to the church whatever had been un- 
justly taken from it since the invasion. 

There were, however, three points, according to Eadmer, in 
which the king unjustly invaded the ecclesiastical rights. 
1. During his reign, the Christian world was afflicted and scan- 
dalized by the rupture between Gregory VII. and Three thin c S j u 
the emperor Henry VI., who, in opposition to his &f^esfc£ 
adversary, created an antipope, Guibert, bishop of ri s hts - 
Ravenna. The conflicting claims of these prelates, and the tem- 
poral pretensions of Gregory, afforded a pretext to William to in- 
troduce a new regulation. He would not permit the authority 
of any particular pontiff to be acknowledged in his dominions, 
without his previous approbation ; and he directed that all letters 
issued from the court of Rome should, on their arrival, be sub- 
mitted to the royal inspection. 2. Though he zealously concurred 
with Archbishop Lanfranc, in his endeavors to reform the man- 
ners of both the clergy and the laity, yet so jealous was he of any 
encroachment on his authority, that without the royal license, he 
would not permit the decisions of national or provincial synods 



80 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1087. 



to be carried into effect. 8. After the separation of the eccle- 
siastical courts from those of the hundred, he enacted such laws 
as were necessary to support the jurisdiction of the former; but 
at the same time forbade them either to implead or to excommu- 
nicate any individual holding in chief of the crown, till the 
nature of the offence had been certified to himself. 



CHAPTER IX. 

%\it Jfntfoal Sustnn. 

Military Tenant — His duty — The nature of Fees — Fees of Inheritance — The 
grievances of Fees — The restrictions when the heirs were Females — Sources 
of the King's Revenue. 

Although, as above stated, the Saxons brought the germ 
of the feudal system into England, it was by the Normans that 
that wonderful social machinery was in its maturity introduced. 
It is impossible for us, consistently with our space, to enter into 
a minute account of the changes which William the Conqueror 
effected. We can, therefore, only present a summary of the 
lucid view which Dr. Lingard presents, referring the advanced 
reader to that great historian's work for particulars. 

Military service was the leading obligation imposed upon the 
vassal by the feudal system. Several other duties, however, de- 
volved upon him, which it is necessary here to explain. 

1. Fealty was incident to every species of tenure, even the lowest. 

Besides fealty, the military tenant was obliged to do homage, that 

Military tenant: he niip;ht obtain the investiture of his fee. Un- 

his oath and du- tii ii t • i i • i i • 

ties. armed and bareheaded, on his knees, and with Ins 

hands placed between those of his lord, he repeated these words : 
" Hear, my lord ; I become your liege-man of life and limb, and 
earthly worship; and faith and truth I will bear to you, to live and 
die. So help me God." The ceremony was concluded with a kiss ; 
and the man was thenceforth bound to respect and obey his lord ; 
the lord to protect his man, and to warrant to him the possession 
of his fee. Hitherto, in other countries, the royal authority could 



1087 A. D.] THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 81 



only reach the sub-vassals through their lord, who alone had 
sworn fealty to the sovereign : nor did they deem themselves de- 
serving of punishment, if they assisted him in his wars, or in his 
rebellion against the crown. Such the law remained for a long 
period on the continent, but William, who had experienced its 
inconvenience, devised a remedy in England ; and compelled all 
the free tenants of his immediate vassals to swear fealty to him- 
self. The consequence was an alteration in the words of the 
oath : the king's own tenants swore to be true to him against all 
manner of men; sub-tenants swore to be true to their lords 
against all men but the king and his heirs. Hence, if they fol- 
lowed their lord in his rebellion, they were adjudged to have vio- 
lated their allegiance, and became subject to the same penalties 
as their leader. 

2. In addition to service in the time of war, the military te- 
nants of the crown were expected to attend the king's court at 
the three great festivals; and, unless they could His duty in time 
show a reasonable cause of absence, were bound to of war - 
appear on other occasions, whenever they were summoned. But 
if this, in some respects, was a burden, in others it was an ho- 
nor and advantage. In these assemblies they consulted together 
on all matters concerning the welfare or safety of the state, con- 
curred with the sovereign in making or amending the laws, and 
formed the highest judicial tribunal in the kingdom. Hence they 
acquired the appellation of the king's barons; the collective body 
was called the baronage of England ; and the lands which they 
held of the crown were termed their respective baronies. By de- 
grees, however, many of the smaller baronies became divided and 
subdivided by marriages and descents ; and the poverty of the 
possessors induced them to exclude themselves from the assem- 
blies of their colleagues. In the reign of John the distinction 
was established between the lesser and the greater barons ; and 
as the latter only continued to exercise the privileges, they alone, 
after some time, were known by the title of barons. 

3. According to a specious, but perhaps erroneous theory, fees 
are beneficiary grants of land, which originally depended for 
their duration on the pleasure of the lord, but The nature of 
were gradually improved into estates for life, and peTuai by wnihu£ 
at last converted into estates of inheritance. But whatever 



82 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1087. 



might have been the practice in former ages, the fees created by 
William and his followers were all granted in perpetuity, to the 
feoffees and their legitimate descendants. There were, however, 
two cases in which they might escheat, or fall to the lord : when, 
by failure of heirs, the race of the first tenant had become ex- 
tinct, or, by felony or treason, the actual tenant incurred the 
penalty of forfeiture. On this account, an officer was appointed 
by the crown, in every county, to watch over its rights, and to 
take immediate possession of all escheated estates. 

4. When the heir, being of full age, entered into the posses- 
sion of the fee, he was required to pay a certain sum to the lord, 

under the name of heriot among the Saxons, or 

The heir required _° . „ ' . 

to pay the heriot, relief among the JNormans. By modern feudal- 
meant ' by these ists we are told that this was meant as an ac- 
knowledgment that the fee was held from the 
bounty of the lord; but it may be fairly doubted whether their 
doctrine have any foundation in fact. Originally, the heriot 
was demanded as due not from the new, but from the last tenant, 
and was discharged out of his personal estate ; he generally made 
provisions for the payment in his will ; and it often appears in 
the form of a legacy, by which the vassal sought to testify his 
respect for the person and his gratitude for the protection of his 
lord. By Canute, the amount of the heriot was regulated by the 
rank of each tenant ; by William, that amount was considerably 
diminished. When he confirmed the law of Canute, he entirely 
omitted the demand of money, and contented himself with a por- 
tion of the horses and arms, the hounds and hawks of the de- 
ceased. But the new regulation was soon violated ; avarice again 
introduced pecuniary reliefs ; and the enormous sums which were 
exacted by succeeding kings, became the frequent subject of use- 
less complaint and ineffectual reform. 

5. The conqueror had solemnly pledged his word that he would 
never require more from his vassals than their stipulated services. 
But the ingenuity of the feudal lawyers discovered that there 

Four occasions were four occasions on which the lord had a right 

in which the lord , pi- , i •, • • i 

had a right to levy, to levy, of his own authority, a pecuniary aid on 
his tenants : when he paid the relief of his fee, when he made 
his eldest son a knight, when he gave his eldest daughter in mar- 
riage, and when he had the misfortune to be a captive in the 



1087 A. D.] 



THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 



hands of his enemies. Of these cases, the first could not apply 
to the tenants of the crown, because the sovereign, holding of no 
one, was not subject to a relief: but this advantage was counter- 
balanced by the frequent appeals which he made to their gene- 
rosity, and which, under a powerful prince, it was dangerous to 
resist. They claimed, however, and generally exercised the right 
of fixing the amount of such aids, and of raising them as they 
thought proper; either by the impost of a certain sum on every 
knight's fee, or the grant of a certain portion from the movables 
of each individual, varying, according to circumstances, from a 
fortieth to a fifth of their estimated value. 

6. Fees of inheritance necessarily required limitations as to 
alienation and descent. The law would not permit the actual 
tenant to defeat the will of his lord, or the rights what the fees 

n , . . -rr-ri , 1 i t .11 of inheritance re- 

oi his issue. Whatever he had acquired by pur- quired, 
chase, or industry, or favor, remained at his own disposal; but 
the fee which he had received to transmit to his descendants, he 
could neither devise by will nor alienate by gift or sale. After 
his death, it went, whether he would or not, to the nearest heir, 
who inherited the whole, and was bound to perform the services 
originally stipulated. It was, however, long before the right of 
representation in descents could be fully established. That the 
eldest son of the first tenant was the legitimate heir, was uni- 
versally admitted; but considerable doubts were entertained 
whether, at the death of the second, the fee should descend to 
his son or his brother ; for, if the former were the nearest in 
blood to the late possessor, the latter was the nearest to the 
original feoffee. This uncertainty is the more deserving of the 
reader's attention, as, in the descent of the crown, it explains the 
occasional interruptions which he has beheld in the line of repre- 
sentation, and the part which the thanes or barons took in the 
election of the sovereign. If the son of the last king were a 
minor, the claim of the young prince was often opposed by that 
of his uncle, whose appeal to the great council was generally 
sanctioned by the national approbation. 

7.. The descent of fees brought with it two heavy grievances — 
wardships and marriages, which were unknown in most feudal 
constitutions, and in England experienced lone; Two grievances 

j i ,• ... „,, . , , attended the de- 

and obstinate opposition. That attempts had scent of fees. 



84 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



[A. D. 1087. 



been made to introduce them, at an early period, is not impro- 
bable ; from the charter of Henry I. it is certain that both had 
been established under the reign of his brother, William Kufus ; 
perhaps even of his father, the Concpieror. After a long 
struggle, it was finally decided that, when the heir was a minor, 
he should not hold the fee, because his age rendered him in- 
capable of performing military service. The lord immediately 
entered into possession, and appropriated the profits to himself, 
or gave them to a favorite, or let them out to farm. Nor was 
this all. He separated the heir from his mother and relations, 
and took him under his own custody, on the ground that it was 
his interest to see that the young man was educated in a manner 
which might hereafter fit him for the performance of military ser- 
vice. He was, however, obliged to defray all the expenses of his 
ward, and to grant to him, when he had completed his twenty-first 
year, the livery of his estate, without the payment of the relief. 

8. But frecpiently the heirs were females; and, as tlxey could 
not perform military service, every precaution was taken to guard 
The restrictions against the prejudice which might be suffered from 
werTfemaies. their succession. Their father was forbidden to 

give them in marriage without the consent of the lord, which, 
however, he could not refuse, without showing a reasonable cause. 
When the tenant died, the fee descended to the daughter, or, if 
there were more than one, to all the daughters in common. The 
lord had the wardship : as each completed her fourteenth year, 
he compelled her to marry the man of his choice; or, if he 
allowed her to remain single, continued to act as her guardian, 
and could prevent her from marrying without his advice and con- 
sent. After marriage, the husband exercised all the rights of his 
wife, did homage in her place, and performed the accustomed 
services. The pretext for these harassing regulations was a 
necessary attention to the interests of the lord, whose fee might 
otherwise come into the possession of a man unable or unwilling 
to comply with the obligations; but avarice converted them into 
a constant source of emolument to the lord, by inducing him to 
sell the marriages of heiresses to the highest bidder. 

The king's revenue was derived : 1. From the rents of the 
crown-lands, generally paid in kind, and allotted to the support 
of the royal household. The particulars respecting all the 



1087 A. D.] 



THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 



85 



lands in England were recorded, by public of- The sourC es of 
fleers, in a book called the Domesday Book, com- ^ e e k J°he S Domet 
piled by royal commissioners, and still preserved. da y Book - 
2. From bis military tenants he received considerable sums, 
under the different heads of reliefs, aids, wardships, and mar- 
riages of heiresses ; for unless the female ward purchased at a 
considerable price the permission to wed the man of her own 
choice, he always disposed of her in marriage by private sale, 
and obtained a greater or smaller sum, in proportion to the value 
of her fee. 3. Escheats and forfeitures continually occurred; 
and, whether the king retained the lands himself, or gave them 
after some time to his favorites, they always brought money into 
the exchequer. 4. The fines paid by litigants for permission to 
have their quarrels terminated in the king's courts, the mulcts or 
pecuniary penalties imposed by the laws, and the amerciaments, 
which were sometimes customary, generally arbitrary, according 
to the caprice or discretion of the judges, amounted in the course 
of each year to enormous sums. 5. He levied tolls at bridges, 
fairs, and markets, exacted certain customs on the export and 
import of goods, and received fees and rents, and tallages, from 
the inhabitants of the burghs and ports. Lastly, William revived 
the odious tax called the Dane-gelt, which had been abolished by 
Edward the Confessor. It was frequently levied for his use, at 
the rate of six shillings on every hide of land under the plough. 
From all these sources, money constantly flowed into the ex- 
chequer, till the king was reputed to be the most opulent prince 
in Christendom. His daily income, even with the exception of 
fines, gifts, and amerciaments, amounted, if we may believe an 
ancient historian, who seems to write from authentic documents, 
to £1061 10s. 10 id. : a prodigious and incredible sum, if we re- 
flect that the pound of that period was equal in weight to three 
nominal pounds of the present day, and that the value of silver 
was perhaps ten times as great as in modern times. 



86 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



[A. D. 1087. 



CHAPTER X. 



Wxllmm i\}t jtonir. 



Popes. 


Scotland. 




Malcolm III. 


Urban II. 


Donald Bane I. 


Paschal II. 


Duncan. 




Donald Bane II 




Edgar. 



CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 

Germany. 
Henry IV. 

France. 
Philip I. 

Spain. 
Alphonso VI. 

William succeeds — His Wars with his Brother — He invades Scotland — He per- 
secutes Archbishop Anselm — His Death and Character. — From A. D. 1087 
to 1100. 

William the Conqueror left three sons. Robert, the eldest 
son, was acknowledged duke of Normandy without opposition; 
,™.. ™.„. -, T and, satisfied with the ducal coronet, he let slip 

1087. William II. ' , ' r 

the golden opportunity of assuming the crown of 
England. He afterward lost even Normandy, and terminated his 
life in a dungeon, the prisoner of his youngest brother. 

William, surnamed Rufus, or " the Red," was the next in age, 
and was his father's favorite son. From the bedside of the dying 
William hastens monarch, he hastened to England, with a letter to 
declared king. Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, who, however, 
refused to declare in his favor till the prince promised that he 
would govern according to law and justice. He was soon, al- 
though not the eldest son, declared king, by means of the co- 
operation of numerous powerful friends. 

Henry, the third son of the Conqueror, had five thousand 
pounds for his portion, with which he was by no means content, 
but thought it the most prudent course to remain silently watch- 
ing the course of events, prepared to avail himself of the first 
opportunity of aggrandizement which fortune might throw in his 
way. 

The Conqueror had, on his death-bed, consented to the libera- 
tion of his prisoners. The Normans were restored to their pos- 
sessions both in England and Normandy; but when the other 



1087 A. D.] WILLIAM THE SECOND. 87 

prisoners arrived in England, they were arrested, and imprisoned 
in the castle of Winchester. Odo, the brother of the Conqueror, 
(to whom William became an object of aversion, on account of 
his listening to the councils of Lanfranc,) soon o<io forms a par- 

* , c /. e -r, x. ty in favor of Ko- 

commenced to iorm a party in favor of .Robert, t, e rt. 
and succeeded in spreading discontent among the barons. Plans 
of insurrection were matured, and a powerful organization was 
entered into against William. The haste of the barons, however, 
and the tardiness of Robert, who was expected from Normandy, 
combined to defeat the insurgents. Without waiting the arrival 
of Robert, the barons commenced a series of predatory attacks 
on the king's lands. The native English took the side of the 
crown, for they were eager to revenge the wrongs they had suffered 
from the Norman chiefs. Odo was soon driven out of England, 
after having, by force and by artifice, endeavored to secure 
Rochester Castle for Robert. The hopes of the barons were 
soon at an end. Robert procrastinated his voyage till the oppor- 
tunity of striking an effective blow at William's power was past, 
and even the scanty succors which he sent were intercepted. 
The principal insurgents escaped to Normandy, and their estates 
were divided among the friends of the king. 

Normandy presented at this period a wide scene of anarchy 
and confusion ; and to William, who sought to be revenged on 
Robert for fomenting rebellion in England, this state of things 
presented an alluring prospect. He lost no time in availing him- 
self of Norman discontent ; and, by means of bribery, he soon 
obtained possession of numerous fortresses in Normandy. Ro- 
bert, unable alone to cope with his brother, so- . Robert solicits 
licited the aid of the king of France, who marched of France, 
with a considerable army to the frontiers of Normandy. He 
soon, however, retreated, on receiving a bribe from the king of 
England. A treaty was concluded in the following year between 
William and Robert, and they joined their forces against Henry, 
whom they compelled to retire to Bretagne. William refused to 
carry out his portion of the treaty. Robert proclaimed the 
English king a perjurer, and he, to defend his honor, submitted 
the case to twenty -four barons ; they decided for Robert, but 
William appealed to the sword. The king of France again 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1090. 



approached to the assistance of Robert, but William again 
bought him off, and returned to England. 

We now arrive at one of the most interesting chapters in the 
history of the human race. At this period the crusades com- 

The crusades- mence( h F° r many centuries, Palestine was sub- 
their history. j ec t, to the Moslem power, but Christians were 
allowed the free exercise of their religion, and pilgrims were per- 
mitted to visit the scene of the passion of our Lord. This tole- 
ration ceased about the year 936, when the Turks obtained 
possession of Jerusalem ; tolls were exacted, and pilgrims were 
insulted. In 1094, Peter the Hermit visited the Holy Sepulchre, 
and witnessed the persecution of the Christians. Returning to 
Europe, he took counsel with Pope Urban II., and, under his 
sanction, he preached in favor of a crusade. The pope called 
upon all Christian princes to lay aside their dissensions, and to join 
against the common foe of Christendom. All Europe flew to 
arms. Robert of Normandy burnt with ardor to share in the 
enterprise ; and, not having money, he mortgaged his territories 
to William for five years, and departed to the Holy Land. 

Many years of William's reign were occupied in resisting the 
hostilities of Malcolm, king of Scotland, and in protecting the 

William's wars west of England from the incursions of the Welsh 
Scotland! ms ' chiefs. The English barons also frequently rose 
against the crown ; but William, having completely overcome the 
earl of Northumberland, and other disaffected nobles, restored 
comparative peace to his dominions. His expensive habits, how- 
ever, which caused him to oppress his subjects with heavy taxa- 
tion, rendered him very unpopular. 

The king fell into ill health in the year 1095, and, trembling 
at the expected approach of death, he sent for the celebrated 
Anselm, who was a native of Aoust, in Piedmont, and was abbot 
of Bee, in Normandy. The bishops advised William to make 

Anselm made Anselm archbishop of Canterbury, of which see 
terb biS ^8 0f ers^ William held the temporalities, since Lanfranc's 
cuted by William, death. The king consented ; but Anselm, know- 
ing that should the king recover he would probably relapse into 
despotism, was reluctant to assume an exalted position. He, 
however, accepted the primacy, and his predictions proved true 
The king recovered, and insulted the primate at every opportunity. 



1100 A. D.] WILLIAM THE SECOND. 89 

There were at this period two competitors for the papacy, Cle- 
ment and Urban. William, in order to enjoy the English eccle- 
siastical revenues the more securely, refused to acknowledge 
either. Anselm acknowledged Urban; and William, in his 
rage, ordered him to be tried for treason. The undaunted An- 
selm, standing in the presence of the nobles of England, ex- 
claimed : " If any man pretend that I violate the faith which I 
have sworn to the king, because I will not reject the authority of 
the bishop of Home, let him come forward, and he will find me 
ready to answer him as I ought." The king ordered the bishops 
to depose the primate; they refused, as not having it in their 
power, but some consented to abjure his authority. The king 
sent to Rome for the pallium, (the emblem of the primacy,) and 
acknowledged Urban. He endeavored to sell the pallium, but, 
failing in the attempt, he felt obliged to give it to Anselm. His 
persecution of the primate, however, continued, and at last An- 
selm retired from England to Rome, where he was received with 
every mark of honor. 

The king lived in extravagance and profligacy until the 2d of 
August, 1100, on which day, hunting in the new forest in 
Hampshire, he was accidentally (some think de- WiUiam }8 killed 
signedly) shot, by one of his knights, with an by an arrow, in 
arrow. No religious rites were performed over 
his grave, as his life had been so sinful. It is generally said that 
Walter Tyrrell was the knight who shot the king. His sudden 
departure for France gave color to the statement ; but, in after 
years, when it would not have injured him to admit the accident, 
he solemnly denied it on oath. The absence of any investigation 
at the time, proves that William's successor, if not a party to his 
brother's death, was, at all events, not much incensed by an 
event which raised him to the throne. 

Of the violent character of William, his rapacity, despotism, 
and debauchery, the reader will have formed a sufficient notion 
from the preceding pages. In person he was His character . 
short and corpulent, with flaxen hair, and a ruddy 
complexion ; from which last circumstance he derived the name 
of Rufus, or, the red. In ordinary conversation, his utterance 
was slow and embarrassed ; in the hurry of passion, precipitate 
and unintelligible. He assumed in public a haughty port, roll- 

F g* 



90 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1100. 

ing his eyes with fierceness on the spectators, and endeavoring, 
by the tone of his voice and the tenor of his answers, to intimi- 
date those who addressed him. But in private he descended to 
an equality with his companions, amusing them with his wit, 
which was chiefly pointed against himself, and seeking to lessen 
the odium of his excesses by making them the subject of 
laughter. 

He built, at the expense of the neighboring counties, a wall 
round the Tower, a bridge over the Thames, and the great hall at 
Westminster. The latter was finished the year before his death ; 
and when he first visited it, after his return from Normandy, he 
replied to his flatterers that there was nothing in its dimensions 
to excite their wonder; it was only the vestibule to the palace 
which he intended to raise ; but in this respect he seems to have 
followed, not to have created, the taste of the age. During his 
reign, structures of unusual magnificence arose in every part of 
the kingdom ; and the most opulent proprietors sought to dis- 
tinguish themselves by the castles which they built, and the 
monasteries which they founded. 



1100 A. D."j HENRY THE FIRST. 91 

CHAPTER XI. 

Jfews % dffrst. 



CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Paschal II. 
Gelasius II. 
Calixtus II. 
Honorius II. 
Innocent II. 



Scotland. 
Edgar. 
Alexander I. 
David I. 

Germany. 
Henry IV. 
Henry V. 
Lothaire II. 



France. 
Philip I. 
Louis VI. 

Spain. 
Alphonso VI. 
Alphonso VII. 
Alphonso VIII. 



Accession of Henry — England invaded by Robert — Henry invades Normandy 
—Takes Robert prisoner.— From A. D.1100 to 1135. 

Four years had now elapsed since Robert of Normandy had 
abandoned his dominions in Europe, to earn a barren wreath of 
glory in the fields of Palestine. By priority of 
birth and the stipulation of treaties, the crown of snmamed Beau- 
England belonged to him. He had already ar- iar. 
rived in Italy, on his way home ; but, ignorant of the prize that 
was at stake, he loitered in Apulia, to woo Sibylla, the fair sister 
of William of Conversana. Henry, the younger brother, was on 
the spot ) he had followed Rufus into the forest ; and, the mo- 
ment that he heard the king was fallen, spurring his horse, he 
rode to Winchester, to secure the royal treasures. William de 
Breteuil, to whose custody they had been intrusted, arrived at 
the same time, and avowed his intention to preserve them for Ro- 
bert, the rightful heir. The prince immediately drew his sword, 
and blood would have been shed, had not their common friends 
interposed, and prevailed on Breteuil to withdraw his opposition. 
As soon as Henry had obtained possession of the treasures and 
castle, he was proclaimed king; and, riding to 
Westminster, was crowned on the Sunday, the Henry, 
third day after the death of his brother. To strengthen the 
weakness of his claim, by connecting it with the interests of the 
people, Henry published a charter of liberties. In this instru- 



92 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1100. 

ment, he restored to the church its ancient immunities. He 
granted to all his barons and immediate vassals (and required 
that they should make the same concession to their tenants) that 
they might dispose by will of their personal property ; that they 
might give their daughters and female relatives in marriage, 
without fee or impediment, provided the intended husband were 
not his enemy; together with several other privileges. To the 
nation at large, he promised to put in force the laws of Edward 
the Confessor, as they had been amended and published by his 
father. Henry, however, retained both the royal forests and the 
forest laws ; but, as a kind of apology, he declared that in this 
reservation he was guided by the advice, and had obtained the 
consent of his barons. He added, at the same time, a very 
beneficial charter in favor of the citizens of London. 

Hitherto, the moral conduct of Henry had been as questionable 
as that of his late brother ; policy now taught him to assume the 
zeal and severity of a reformer. He amended his own mode of 
life, and sent to hasten the return of Archbishop Anselm, with 
expressions of the highest regard and veneration for his character. 
At the solicitation of the prelates, he consented to marry ; and 

Henry marries the object of his choice was Matilda, the daughter 
of Malcolm. of Malcolm, king of Scots, by Margaret, the sister 

of Edgar the Etheling ; a princess whose descent from the Anglo- 
Saxon monarchs was expected to add stability to his throne, and 
to secure the succession to his posterity. The marriage was cele- 
brated, and the queen crowned with the usual solemnity by An- 
selm, who had returned to England and resumed the administra- 
tion of his diocese. 

To satisfy the clamor of the people, Henry had committed to 
the Tower, Flambard, bishop of Durham, the unpopular minister 
of the late king. Flambard, with the aid of a rope, descended 
from the window, was conducted by his friends to the sea-shore, 
and thence escaped into Normandy. In Normandy he found 
Duke Robert, who had married Sibylla, and returned to his 
duchy within a month after the death of his brother. By his 
former subjects he had been received with welcome; but his 
claim to the English crown, though he meant to enforce it, was 
postponed to a subsequent period. But the arrival and sugges- 
tions of Flambard turned his thoughts from pleasure to war. 



1101 A. D.] HENRY THE FIRST. 93 



His vassals professed their eagerness to fight under a prince who 
had gained laurels in the Holy Land ; tenders of assistance were 
received from England; and a powerful force of 
men-at-arms, archers, and footmen, was ordered to invade England! 
to assemble in the neighborhood of Tresport. 

Henry beheld with disquietude the preparations of his brother, 
and collected an army at Pevensey, on the coast of Sussex. Ro- 
bert, conducted by the mariners whom Flambard had debauched 
from their allegiance, reached the harbor of Portsmouth. To se- 
cure the city of Winchester, became to each prince an object of the 
first importance. Though Robert was nearer, he was delayed by the 
debarkation of his troops, and Henry overtook him on his march. 
After several fruitless and irritating messages, 
Henry demanded a conference with his brother, bert meet in con- 
The two princes met in a vacant space between oTpeace concluded 
the armies, conversed for a few minutes, and em- between them - 
braced as friends. The terms of reconciliation were immediately 
adjusted. Robert renounced all claims to the crown of England, 
and obtained in return a yearly pension of three thousand marks, 
the cession of all the castles which Henry possessed in Normandy, 
with the exception of Damfront, and the revocation of the judg- 
ment of forfeiture which William had pronounced against his ad- 
herents. It was moreover stipulated, that both princes should 
unite to punish their respective enemies, and that if either died 
without legitimate issue, the survivor should be his heir. Twelve 
barons on each side swore to enforce the observance of these 
articles. 

Henry was soon afterward engaged in a contest with several 
disaffected noblemen, the principal of whom was Belesme, earl 
of Shrewsbury, who was defeated and banished. Robert re- 
ligiously observed the conditions of peace. He had, even on the 
first notice of Belesme's rebellion, ravaged the Norman estates of 
that nobleman. Sensible, however, that the real crime of the 
outlaws was their former attachment to his interest, he unex- 
pectedly came to England, at the solicitation of Robert goea to 
the earl of Surrey, and incautiously trusted him- made^prisoner by 
self to the generosity of an unfeeling brother. llisbrotner - 
He was received, indeed, with a smile of affection, but soon 
found that he was in reality a captive ; instead of interceding in 



94 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1103. 

favor of others, he was reduced to treat for his own liberty ; and, 
as the price of his ransom, gladly resigned his annuity of three 
thousand marks, which, to save the honor of the two princes, was 
received as a present by the queen Matilda. After such treat- 
ment, Robert could not doubt of the hostility of his brother; 
and, in his own defence, he sought the friendship and accepted 
the services of the outlaw, Belesme, who still possessed thirty- 
four castles in Normandy. Henry received the intelligence with 
pleasure, pronounced the alliance between himself and Robert at 
an end, accepted (perhaps procured) invitations from the enemies 
of the duke, and resolved to transfer the Norman coronet to his 

Henry invades own head. The first campaign passed without any 
tadrfe"tS;iKJ important result: in the second, the fate of Nor- 
ken prisoner. mandy was decided before the walls of Tenchebrai, 
where Robert was defeated. He was soon sent to England, and 
kept in confinement till death. Henry summoned the Norman 
barons to meet him, and was acknowledged duke without oppo- 
sition. 

While the king had thus been employed in chastising his 
enemies, and stripping an unfortunate brother of his dominions, 
he was engaged in a less successful quarrel with Anselm and the 
Dispute concern- court of Rome, concerning the right of investi- 
vestiture. ture. To understand the subject of the contro- 

versy, the reader should know that, according to ancient practice, 
the election of bishops had generally depended on the testimony 
of the clergy and people, and the suffrage of the provincial pre- 
lates. But the lapse of years, and the conversion of the bar- 
barous nations, had introduced important innovations into this 
branch of ecclesiastical polity. The tenure of clerical, was 
assimilated to that of lay property ; the sovereign assumed the 
right of approving of the prelate elect ; and the new bishop or 
abbot, like the baron or knight, was compelled to swear fealty, 
and to do homage to his superior lord. The pretensions of the 
crown were gradually extended. As it was the interest of the 
prince that the spiritual fiefs should not fall into the hands of his 
enemies, he reserved to himself the right of nomination; and, 
in virtue of that right, invested the individual whom he had no- 
minated with the ring and crosier, the acknowledged emblems of 
episcopal and abbatial jurisdiction. The church had observed 



1108 A. D.] HENRY THE FIRST. 95 

with jealousy these successive encroachments on her privileges; 
in the general councils of Nice, in 787, and of Constantinople, 
in 869, the nomination of bishops by lay authority had been 
condemned ; in 1067 the former prohibitions were renewed by 
Gregory VII. ; and, ten years afterward, Victor III., in a synod 
at Beneventum, added the sentence of excommunication both 
against the prince who should presume to exercise the right of 
investiture and the prelate who should condescend to receive his 
temporalities on such conditions. But it was in vain that the 
thunders of the church were directed against a practice enforced 
by sovereigns, who refused to surrender a privilege enjoyed by 
their predecessors, and defended by prelates who were indebted 
to it for their wealth and importance. The contest between the 
two powers continued during half a century ; nor was it without 
mutual concessions that claims so contradictory could be amicably 
adjusted. 

It would exhaust the patience of the reader to descend into the 
particulars of this dispute ; to notice all the messages that were 
sent to Rome, and the answers returned to England ; the artifices 
that were employed to deceive, and the expedients suggested to 
mollify Anselm. At last, by the king's request, Anseim poes to 

, i,i i i • n i • Italy : the dispute 

ne undertook, aged and innrm as ne was, a journey finally settled, 
to Italy, to lay the whole controversy before the pontiff; on his 
return, he received an order to remain in banishment till he 
should be willing to submit to the royal pleasure. The exile re- 
tired to his friend the archbishop of Lyons, under whose hos- 
pitable roof he spent the three following years. In the interval, 
Henry was harassed by the entreaties of his barons and the mur- 
murs of the people : his sister, Adela, countess of Blois, and his 
queen, Matilda, importuned him to be reconciled to the primate ; 
and Paschal II., who had already excommunicated his advisers, 
admonished him that in a few weeks the same sentence would be 
pronounced against himself. The king, not prepared to push the 
dispute to this extremity, discovered a willingness to relent. An- 
selm met him at the abbey of Bee ; and both, in the true spirit 
of conciliation, consented to abandon a part of their pretensions. 
As fealty and homage were civil duties, it was agreed that they 
should be exacted from every clergyman before he received his 
temporalities. As the ring and crosier were considered to denote 



96 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1115. 

spiritual jurisdiction, to which the king acknowledged that he 
had no claim, the collation of these emblems was suppressed. 

The possession of Normandy soon involved the king in hos- 
tilities with the neighboring princes. William, the only son of 

wuiiam, the son the captive duke, was but five years old at the 
se f s H the er hoie a cre of time of ihe battle of Tenchebrai. As he advanced 
Lis partisans. j n a g Gj th e hopes of his partisans increased. 
Baldwin, earl of Flanders, with whom he found an honorable 
retreat during several years, engaged to assist him with all his 
power ; Louis, king of France, was induced to draw the sword in 
the same cause : even Fulk of Anjou agreed to join the con- 
federates. All these princes had individually reasons to complain 
of Henry ; they were willing to sanctify their resentments by 
espousing the interests of an injured orphan. Thus the embers 
of war were kindled, and the flame stretched from one extremity 
of Normandy to the other. During more than three years, for- 
tune seemed to play with the efforts of the combatants. At first, 
Louis was compelled to solicit the forbearance of the king of 
England ; then success upon success waited on his arms ; after- 
ward, Baldwin died of a slight wound received at the siege of 
Eu; next, Fulk of Anjou, induced by a considerable bribe and 
the marriage of his daughter to Henry's son, withdrew from the 
allies ; and, at last, the decisive though almost bloodless victory 

An end at length of Brenville gave the superiority to the king of 

put to the hostili- x-.it . , , .,..,, 

ties. England. An end was put to hostilities by the 

paternal industry of the pontiff, Calixtus II., and a treaty of 
peace was concluded under his auspices. Henry retained what 
he principally sought, the possession of Normandy ; and the king 
of France, as sovereign lord, received the homage of William, 
Henry's son, in lieu of that of the father. 

The ambition of the king was now gratified. His foreign foes 
had been compelled to solicit peace — his Norman enemies had 
been crushed by the weight of his arms ; and, if further security 
were wanting, it had been obtained by the investiture of the 
duchy which had been granted to his son William. After an ab- 
sence of four years, he resolved to return in triumph to England. 
At Barfleur, he was met by a Norman mariner, called Fitz- 
Stephen, who offered him a mark of gold, and solicited the honor 
of conveying him in his vessel, " the White Ship." It was, he 



1120A.D.] HENRY THE FIRST. 97 

observed, new, and manned with fifty most able seamen His 
father had carried the king's father, when he sailed to the eon- 
quest of England ; and the service by which he held his fee was 
that of providing for the passage of his sovereign. Henry re 
plied that he had already chosen a vessel for himself, but that he 
would confide his son and his treasures to the care of Fitz- 
Stephen. With the young prince (he was in his eighteenth year) 
embarked his brother Richard and his sister Adela, both natural 
children of Henry, the earl of Chester and his countess, the 
king's niece, sixteen other noble ladies, and one hundred and 
forty knights. They spent some hours on deck in feasting and 
dancing, and distributed three barrels of wine among the crew ; 
but the riot and intoxication which prevailed about sunset, in- 
duced the more prudent to quit the vessel, and return to the 
shore. Henry had set sail as soon as the tide would Henry sets sail 
permit. William, after a long delay, ordered En g land - 
Fitz-Stephen to follow his father. Immediately every sail was 
unfurled, every oar was plied ; but, amid the music and revelling, 
the care of the helm was neglected, and the The shipwreck 

__ .,-,,.,, . , , , and loss of his 

" White Ship, carried away by the current, children, 
suddenly struck against a rock. The rapid influx of the water 
admonished the gay and heedless company of their alarming 
situation. By Fitz-Stephen, the prince was immediately lowered 
into a boat, and told to row back to the land ; but the shrieks of 
his sister recalled him to the wreck, and the boat sank under the 
multitude that poured into it. In a short time the vessel itself 
went down, and three hundred persons were buried in the waves. 
A young nobleman, Geoffrey de L'Aigle, and Berold, a butcher 
of Rouen, alone saved themselves, by clinging to the top of the 
mast. After a few minutes, the unfortunate Fitz-Stephen swam 
toward them, inquired for the prince, and being told that he had 
perished, plunged under the water. Geoffrey, benumbed by the 
cold of a November night, was soon washed away, and, as he 
sank, uttered a prayer for the safety of his companion. Berold 
retained his hold, was rescued in the morning by a fishing-boat, 
and related the particulars of this doleful catastrophe. Henry 
had arrived at Southampton, and frequently expressed his sur- 
prise at the tardiness of his son. The first intelligence was con- 
veyed to Theobald of Blois, who communicated it to his friends, 

9 



98 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1120. 



The news of the but dared not inform the king. The next morning 
death of his chu- the fatal secret was revealed by a young page, 

area conveyed to # > » # •> . o * o - / 

uenry. who threw himself in tears at his feet. At the 

shock, Henry sank to the ground, but, recovering himself, 
affected a display of fortitude which he did not feel. He talked 
of submission to the dispensations of Providence ; but the wound 
had penetrated deep into his heart. His grief gradually sub- 
sided into a settled melancholy ; and it is said that from that day 
he was never observed to smile. Matilda, by the death of her 
husband, became a widow at the age of twelve, within six months 
after her marriage. By Henry she was treated with the affection 
of a parent; but at the demand of her father returned to Anjou, 
and ten years afterward put on the vail at the convent of Fonte- 
vraud. 

But Henry, deprived of his only legitimate son, had new plans 
to form, new precautions to take, against the pretensions and 
attempts of his nephew. On that prince every eye was fixed; 
his virtues and misfortunes were the theme of general conversa- 
tion ; and few men doubted that he would ultimately succeed to 
the throne. Fulk of Anjou, whom the king had offended, by re- 
fusing to return the dower of Matilda, affianced to him his 
younger daughter, Sibylla, and gave him the earldom of Mans; 
while the most powerful barons of Normandy, Amauri of Mont- 
fort, and Walleran, the young earl of Mellent, undertook to 
assist him, on the first opportunity, with all their forces and 
influence. Henry, by his spies, was informed of the most secret 
motions of his enemies. In the court of Anjou, he employed 
The marriage be- tnreats an & promises, and bribes, to prevent the 
tween wmiam and intended marriage: he even undertook to prove 

Sibylla is opposed . . . „. 

by Henry. that the two parties, William and Sibylla, were 

relations within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity. In 
Normandy, he suddenly landed with a numerous body of English 
forces, and overthrew the friends of his nephew. 

The life of William, the son of Robert, was an alternating 
seiies of elevation and depression. If the sudden fate of his 
cousin had awakened his hopes, they were soon defeated by the 
sagacity and promptitude of his uncle ; but he was amply repaid 
for the disappointment by the bounty of Louis, who, in lieu of 
Sibylla, whose father now refused her to him, bestowed on him 



1123 A. D.] HENRY THE FIRST. 99 

the hand of his sister-in-law, and gave for her portion Chainont, 
Pontoise, and the Vexin, on the borders of Normandy; whence, 
by his proximity, he was enabled to encourage his partisans, and 
to keep alive the spirit of opposition to Henry. Soon afterward, 
Charles the Good, earl of Flanders, and the sue- TheeariofFian- 
cessor of Baldwin, was assassinated. He was at in church, 
his devotions in a church at Bruges, when Burchard de L'Isle 
suddenly assailed him with a body of armed men, and murdered 
him at the foot of the altar. On the first intelligence of this 
event, William of Ipres surrounded the walls with his retainers ; 
the king of France followed with a formidable force ; and, after 
a siege of five weeks, the gates were burst open, and the assassins 
were precipitated over the battlements of the castle. William 
had accompanied his benefactor, and received from him the in- 
vestiture of the earldom, which he could justly claim as the 
representative of Matilda, his grandmother, the daughter of 
Baldwin V. Thus, again, by the caprice of fortune, was he 
raised to a high degree of power, and placed in a situation the 
most favorable for the conquest of Normandy. Henry began to 
tremble for the safety of his continental possessions. 

It is now time to notice the measures by which that monarch 
had sought to perpetuate the succession in his own family. Ma- 
tilda had brought him two children ; a son, William, whose pre- 
mature fate the reader has already witnessed, and a daughter, 
Alice, who afterward assumed the name of her mother. For the 
last twelve years of her life, the queen resided at Westminster, 
deprived of the society of her husband. By her death, in 1118, 
the king found himself at liberty to contract another marriage, 
and he offered his hand to Adelais, the daughter Henry marries 
of Geoffrey, duke of Louvain, and niece to Pope of Geoffrey. 
Calixtus — a princess whose chief recommendation was her youth 
and beauty. Their union proved without issue; and, after a 
delay of three years, he formed the resolution of settling the 
crown on his daughter Maud, who had married Henry V. of 
Germany, and, by the death of her husband, was lately become 
a widow. A general assembly was summoned of the prelates 
and chief tenants of the crown ; before them, Henry lamented 
the premature death of his son, and proposed his daughter Maud 
as presumptive heiress to the succession. She united, he ob- 



100 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1127. 



served, in her veins, the blood of the Anglo-Saxon with that of 
the Norman princes. The empress was unanimously pronounced 
the next heir, in the event of her father dying without male 
issue ; and first the clergy, then the laity, swore to maintain her 
succession. Among the laity, the precedence was given to her 
uncle David, on account of his regal character. The second 
place was disputed between Stephen, earl of Boulogne, and Ro- 
bert, earl of Gloucester. The former was the king's nephew, by 
his sister Adela, and had been born in lawful wedlock ; the latter 
was Henry's son, but of spurious birth. The question was de- 
termined in favor of Stephen. But these noblemen had in view 
a secret and important object. Notwithstanding the precautions 
of Henry, the succession of Maud was considered very uncertain : 
both Stephen and Robert looked forward to the crown ; and, on 
that account, each was anxious to be declared the first prince of 
the blood. 

The reader has noticed the constant solicitude of Henry to se- 
cure the friendship of Fulk, count of Anjou. That nobleman 
had lately resigned his European states to his eldest son, and had 
accepted the more brilliant but precarious dignity of king of 
Matilda is mar- Jerusalem. Henry offered with eagerness the 
count of Anjou rey ' hand of Matilda to Geoffrey, the reigning earl. 
The marriage was negotiated in secret : its publication excited 
the loud complaints of the English and Norman barons. They 
claimed a right to be consulted in the disposal of their future 
sovereign ; and many declared that they looked on themselves as 
released from the obligation of their oath, by the duplicity of the 
king. 

It was impossible for Henry to contemplate without dis- 
quietude the increasing fame and power of his nephew, the earl 
of Flanders. William had justly, but perhaps imprudently, 
punished the murderers of his predecessor. Their friends sought 
to be revenged on the new earl : at their suggestion, Thierry, 
landgrave of Alsace, advanced a claim to the succession ; and 
Henry engaged to support him with all the power of England 
and Normandy. Lisle, Ghent, and several other places, were 
perfidiously surrendered to Thierry; but William displayed his 
wonted activity and courage, and completely defeated his antago- 
nist under the walls of Alost. Unfortunately, after the battle, 



1134 A. D.] HENRY THE FIRST. 101 

and at the very sate of the town, he received a 

7 t> -l p ,,, Battle of Alost, 

thrust in the hand from the pike or a foot-soldier, and the death of 
The wound was slight, and therefore neglected : a Flanders, 
mortification ensued ; and the prince soon died. 

Family broils detained the king in Normandy, and occupied 
his attention during the last years of his reign. But though he 
resided so frequently on the continent, and was so anxious to 
secure his transmarine possessions, he did not neglect the govern- 
ment of his kingdom of England, by far the most valuable por- 
tion of his dominions. The administration of justice, and the 
preservation of the public tranquillity, were objects which he had 
constantly at heart, and which he earnestly recommended to the 
vigilance of his officers. 

Robert, the unfortunate duke of Normandy, had now spent 
eight-and-twenty years in captivity. According to some his- 
torians, he bore his confinement with impatience ; and, by an un- 
successful attempt to escape, provoked his brother to deprive 
him of sight. For the honor of human nature, we may hope 
that the latter part of the account is false ; the more so as it is 
not supported by contemporary authority. If Henry may be 
believed, the reader has already heard him boast of the splendor 
and comfort enjoyed by his captive ; and Malmesbury (but 
Malmesbury wrote to the son of Henry, and therefore was dis- 
posed to panegyrize the father,) seems to confirm this statement, 
when he assures us that the duke was allowed every indulgence 
compatible with his condition as a prisoner. Ro- 
bert died at the age of eighty, in the castle of duke of Normandy'. 
Cardiff, in Wales. 

Henry did not survive his brother more than a year. He had 
been hunting near St. Denis le Froment, in Normandy, and at 
his return was seized with an acute fever. On the third day, 
despairing of his recovery, he sent for the archbishop of Rouen, 
from whom he received the sacraments of the eucharist and ex- 
treme unction. The earls of Gloucester, Surrey, and Leicester, and 
the rest of the nobility assembled round his bed, and in their pre- 
sence he pronounced his last will. I bequeath, he said, all my lands, 
on both sides of the sea, to my daughter Matilda and her heirs 
for ever ; and I desire that, when my debts have been discharged, 
and the liveries and wages of my retainers have been paid, the 

9* 



102 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1135. 



remainder of niy effects may be distributed to the poor. On the 
Death of Henry seven th day of his illness he expired. His bowels 
1135 - were deposited in the church of St. Mary, at 

Rouen, which had been founded by his mother ; his body was 
conveyed to England, and interred in the abbey of Reading. 

A contemporary writer has left us the character of Henry as it 

was differently drawn, by his friends and enemies, after his death. 

By the former he was ranked among the wisest. 

is c arac er. j^bes^ a nd bravest of our monarchs ; the latter 
loaded his memory with the reproach of cruelty, avarice, and in- 
continence. To an indifferent observer, at the present day, his 
reign will offer little worthy of praise, unless it be the severity 
with which he punished offences. This was a real benefit to his 
people ; as it not only contributed to extirpate the robbers by 
profession, but also checked the rapacity and violence of the 
barons. Still, his merit will be very equivocal. As long as each 
conviction brought with it a fine or forfeiture to the royal ex- 
chequer, princes were stimulated to the execution of the laws by 
a sense of personal interest. Henry, at the same time that he 
visited the injustice of others, scrupled not to commit injustice 
himself. Probably, in both cases he had in view the same object 
— his own emolument. 

The great aim of his ambition was to aggrandize his family, 
by augmenting his possessions on the continent. His success in 
this favorite project obtained for him the reputation of political 
wisdom ; but it was purchased at the expense of enormous sums, 
wrung from a suffering and impoverished people. If, however, 
the English thus paid for acquisitions in which they had little 
interest, they derived from them one advantage — the king's 
attention to foreign politics rendered him anxious to preserve 
peace with his more immediate neighbors. He lived on the most 
friendly terms with Alexander and David, successively kings of 
Scotland. The former had married his natural daughter, Sibylla ; 
both were the brothers of his wife Matilda. It was more difficult 
Henry's efforts to *° re P ress the active and predatory disposition of 
subdue the welsh, the Welsh ; but as often as he prepared to chastise 
their presumption, they pacified his resentment by submission 
and presents. As a check to this restless people, he planted 
among them a powerful colony of foreigners. Many natives of 



1135 A. D.] HENRY THE FIRST. 103 

Flanders had found settlements in England, under the protection 
of his mother, Matilda ; and the number was now doubled by a 
crowd of emigrants, who had been driven from their homes by an 
inundation of the Rhine. Henry placed them at first on the 
right bank of the Tweed ; but afterward, collecting the old and 
new comers into one body, allotted to them for their residence the 
town of Haverfordwest, with the district of Ross, in Pembroke- 
shire. They were a martial and industrious people ; by attention 
to the cultivation of the soil, and the manufacture of cloth, they 
grew in numbers and opulence ; and, under the protection of the 
English kings, to whom they always remained faithful, defeated 
every attempt of the "Welsh princes to root them out of the 
country. 

Henry was naturally suspicious, and this disposition had been 
greatly encouraged by his knowledge of the clandestine attempts 
of his enemies. On one occasion, the keeper of his treasures 
was convicted of a design on his life ; on another, while he was 
marching in the midst of his army toward Wales, an arrow from 
an unknown hand struck him on the breast, but was repelled by 
the temper of his cuirass. Alarmed by these incidents, he 
always kept on his guard, frequently changed his apartments, 
and, when he retired to rest, ordered sentinels to be stationed at 
the door, and his sword and shield to be placed near his pillow. 

The suspicious are generally dissembling and revengeful. 
Henry seldom forgot an injury, though he would disguise his 
enmity under the mask of friendship. Fraud, and treachery, 
and violence were employed to ensnare those who had greatly 
offended him ; and their usual portion was death, or blindness, or 
perpetual imprisonment. After his decease, it was discovered 
that his cousin, the earl of Moretoil, whom he had long kept in 
confinement, had also been deprived of sight. „ 

' *■ ° Henrys cruelty 

Luke de Barre, a poet, who had fought against toward Luke cie 
him, was made prisoner at the close of the last others. 
war, and sentenced by the king to lose his eyes. Charles the 
Good, earl of Flanders, was present, and remonstrated against so 
direful a punishment. It was not, he observed, the custom of 
civilized nations to inflict bodily punishment on knights who had 
drawn the sword in the service of their lord. " It is not," re« 
plied Henry, " the first time that he has been in arms against 



104 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1135 



me. But, what is worse, he has made me the subject of satire, 
and in his poems has held me up to the derision of my enemies. 
From his example, let other versifiers learn what they may ex- 
pect if they offend the king of England." The cruel mandate 
was executed ; and the troubadour, in a paroxysm of agony, 
bursting from the hands of the officers, clashed out his brains 
against the wall. 

His dissimulation was so well known, that he was mistrusted 
even by his favorites. When Bloet, bishop of Lincoln, who had 

Henry's great for man y J earS been 0UQ ° f mS P™cipal JUS- 

dissimuiation. ticiaries, was told that the king had spoken of 
him in terms of the highest commendation — " Then," he replied, 
"lam undone ; for I never knew him praise a man whom he did 
not intend to ruin." The event justified his apprehensions. In 
an unguarded moment the prelate had boasted that the monastery 
which he was building at Eynesham, should equal that which 
Henry had founded at Reading. The words were carried to the 
king, and the fall of the favorite was consummated. He was 
immediately deprived of the office of justiciary; vexatious prose- 
cutions were commenced against him ; by fines and extortions all 
his wealth was drawn to the royal exchequer ; and the bishop 
would probably have been compelled to resign his dignity, had he 
not died, by a sudden stroke of apoplexy, as he was speaking to 
Henry. 

Malmesbury has allotted to the king the praise of temperance 
and continency. Perhaps his claim to these rests on no other 
ground than the partiality of his panegyrist. Many writers 
affirm that his death was occasioned by the excess with which he 
ate of a dish of lampreys. Robert of Caen, earl of Gloucester, 
his illegitimate son, was much distinguished by his father. He 
will claim the attention of the reader in the following reign. 

The king's principal ministers were Roger, bishop of Salisbury, 
and Robert, earl of Mellent. Roger had constantly adhered to 
Henry's minis- Henry in all the vicissitudes of fortune which that 
ters - prince experienced before his accession; it was 

natural that he should rise to eminence when his patron became 
a rich and powerful monarch. By the chapter of Salisbury he 
was chosen bishop of that see; by the king, he was appointed 
grand justiciary of the kingdom. On the plea that the two 



1135 A. D.] HENRY THE FIRST. 105 



offices were incompatible with each other, he declined the latter, 
till his scruples were removed by the joint authority of the pontiff 
and the metropolitan. To his episcopal duties he devoted the 
more early part of the day ; the remainder was given to the 
affairs of state — and it is no weak argument of his merit, that 
though he was many years the minister of a rapacious monarch, 
he never incurred the hatred of the people. Whenever Henry 
left the kingdom, the bishop of Sarum was appointed regent; 
and in that capacity discharged the duties of government for 
years together, to the satisfaction of his sovereign. 

While the internal administration was confided to this prelate, 
the department of foreign politics exercised the abilities of the 
earl of Mellent. He attended the king in all his expeditions 
into Normandy, and acquired the reputation of be- The earl of Mei- 
ing the first statesman in Europe. Princes and a^d influence. * 61 " 
pontiffs courted his friendship; Henry himself, though he per- 
ceived it not, was supposed to be governed by him ; and his pos- 
sessions in England, Normandy, and France received daily aug- 
mentations from his violence and rapacity. Nor was his authority 
confined to the concerns of government; he had usurped the em- 
pire of taste; and every fashionable courtier imitated the dress 
and manners of the earl of Mellent. His last illness was induced 
or irritated by vexation of mind. He had resolved to augment 
his wealth by marriage with an opulent heiress ; but his expecta- 
tions were defeated by the superior address of a rival. On his 
death-bed he sent for the archbishop of Canterbury ; and when 
that prelate exhorted him to prepare for a future life, by repair- 
ing the injustices which he had committed in this, he hastily 
replied, " I will leave to my children whatever I have acquired. 
Let them do justice to those whom I have injured." It is su- 
perfluous to add, that justice was never done. 

These two ministers, as well as every other officer trusted by 
the king, were foreigners. He felt no gratitude for the services, 
and held in no estimation the abilities of his na- The king's dis- 
tive subjects. If, in the hour of danger, he ap- subjects, 
pealed to their fidelity, during the time of prosperity he treated 
them with the most marked contempt. They were carefully ex- 
cluded from every office of power or emolument, whether in 
church or state. The most slender recommendation was sufficient 



106 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1135. 

to qualify a stranger, were he Italian, French, or Norman ; nc 
services, no talents, could expiate in an Englishman the original 
sin of his nativity. 

Henry, if we consider the value of money at that period, was 
immensely rich. On occasions of ceremony, when he wore his 
crown, he imitated the parade of the eastern monarchs; and 
before him, on a table, were displayed the most precious of his 
treasures, particularly two golden vases of extraordinary dimen- 

Hemy s wealth, sions, and elegantly enchased with jewels. After 
and works of art. h; s death^ his successor found in the exchequer, 
besides the plate and gems collected by Henry and his two pre- 
decessors, one hundred thousand pounds of pennies, all of just 
weight, and of pure silver. So much wealth had enabled him to 
indulge his taste for architecture; and while the castles which he 
raised on the borders of Wales contributed to the protection of 
the country, by repairing or rebuilding most of the royal palaces, 
he provided for the comfort and splendor of himself and his suc- 
cessors. At Woodstock, he enclosed a spacious park for deer, 
and added a menagerie for wild beasts, among which Malmesbury 
mentions lions, leopards, lynxes, camels, and, what appears to 
have chiefly attracted the notice of the historian, a porcupine. 
But his religious foundations principally displayed his magnifi- 
cence ; these were, three monasteries ; two for regular canons, at 
Chichester and Dunstable, and one for monks of the order of 
Cluni, situated at Reading, near the conflux of the Thames and 
the Kennet, where the great roads of the kingdom intersected 
each other. The wealth with which Henry endowed this esta- 
blishment did not seduce the monks from the rigid observance of 
their rule. It was their custom to offer hospitality to all who 
passed by their convent ; and it was believed that, in the enter- 
tainment of strangers, they annually expended a much larger 
sum than was devoted to their own maintenance. 

Before I close the history of this prince, and proceed to the 
turbulent reign of Stephen, it will be proper to notice the rapid 

Literature. Lan- improvement of the nation in literary pursuits, 

franc and Anselm. un( j er the Conqueror and hig gonS- Lanfranc and 

Anselm, the two archbishops of Canterbury, had proved them- 
selves worthy of their exalted station. The superior knowledge 
of the former was universally admitted : the attainments of his 



1135 A. D.] HENRY THE FIRST. 107 

successor were of a still higher class. Both, in their more early 
years, had exercised the profession of teachers; and their pre- 
cepts and example had awakened the curiosity of the clergy, and 
kindled an ardor for learning which can hardly be paralleled in 
the present age. Nor did this enthusiasm perish with its authors 
— it was kept alive by the honors which were so prodigally 
lavished on all who could boast of literary acquirements. The 
sciences, which formed the usual course of education, were divided 
into two classes, which still retained the appellations of a more 
barbarous age; the trivium, comprising grammar, logic, and 
rhetoric, and the quadrivium, or music, arithmetic, geometry, and 
astronomy. It was from the works of the Latin writers, which 
had survived the wreck of the empire, that students sought to 
acquire the principal portion of their knowledge ; but in the 
science of medicine, and the more abstruse investigations of the 
mathematics, the ancients were believed inferior to the Moham- 
medan teachers; and many an Englishman, during the reign of 
Henry, wandered as far as the banks of the Ebro, in Spain, that 
he might listen to the instructions, or translate the works of the 
Arabian philosophers. 

To the praise of the popes, it must be said that, even in the 
Middle Ages, they were generally attentive to the interests of 
learning. The first schools had been established The first schools. 
in monasteries and cathedrals, by the zeal of their A° cie x ew F ^j f ™; 
respective prelates; that they were perpetuated sors - 
and improved, was owing to the regulations issued by different 
pontiffs. But now the ancient seminaries began to be neglected 
for others, opened by men who sought for wealth and distinction 
by the public display of their abilities ; and who established their 
schools wherever there was a prospect of attracting disciples. 
The new professors were soon animated with a spirit of competi- 
tion, which, while it sharpened their faculties, perverted the use- 
fulness of their labors. There was no subject on which they 
would condescend to acknowledge their ignorance. Like their 
Arabian masters, they discussed with equal warmth matters above 
their comprehension, or beneath their notice. As their schools 
were open to every hearer, they had to support their peculiar 
opinions against all the subtlety and eloquence of their rivals; 
and on many occasions were compelled to argue in despite of 



108 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1135 



common sense, rather than allow themselves to be vanquished. 
Hence, the art of reasoning came to be valued as the first of in- 
tellectual acquirements. The student applied assiduously to the 
logic of Aristotle, and the subtleties of his Arabian commenta- 
tors; words were substituted in the place of ideas; multiplied 
and unmeaning distinctions bewildered the understanding; and a 
system of scholastic disputation was introduced, which the cele- 
brated abbot of Clairvaux sarcastically defined to be " the art of 
always seeking, without ever finding, the truth." 

As the principal ecclesiastics in England were foreigners, they 

imported the foreign course of studies. Thus, Joffrid, abbot of 

Croyland, procured teachers from Orleans, where he had been 

Joffrid establish- educated, and established them at Cotenham, a 

es a school at Cam- . . . . . TT . . . 

bridge. manor belonging to his convent. His object was 

to open, with their assistance, a school in the neighboring town 
of Cambridge. At first, a large barn sufficed for their accommo- 
dation ; in the second year, their disciples were so numerous that 
separate apartments were allotted to each master. Early in the 
morning the labors of the day were opened by brother Odo, who 
taught the children the rules of grammar, according to Priscian; 
at six, Terric read lectures on the logic of Aristotle ; nine was 
the hour allotted to brother William, the expounder of the rhe- 
torical works of Cicero and Quintilian ; and, before twelve, mas- 
ter Gilbert explained to the theological students the different 
passages of the Holy Scriptures. This account, if it be genuine, 
discloses the real origin of the university of Cambridge. 

There were few among the scholars of Henry's reign who did 
not occasionally practise the art of composing in Latin verse. A 
The study of La- ^ ew °^ * nem ma y certainly claim the praise of 
tin verse. taste and elegance ; but the majority seem to have 

aspired to no other excellence than that of adulterating the legi- 
timate metre by the admixture of middle and final rhymes. Latin 
productions, however, were confined to the perusal and admiration 
of Latin scholars. The rich and the powerful, those who alone 
were able to reward the labors of the poet, were acquainted with 
no other language than their own, the Gallo-Norman, which since 
the Conquest had been introduced into the court of the prince 
and the hall of the baron, and was learned and spoken by every 
candidate for office and power. To amuse and delight these men, 



1135 A. D.] HENRY THE FIRST. 109 

arose a new race of versifiers, who neglected Latin composition 
for vernacular poetry In their origin they were fostered by the 
patronage of the two queens of Henry, Matilda and Alice. 
Malmesbury assures us that every poet hastened to the court of 
Matilda, at Westminster, to read his verses to that princess, and 
to partake of her bounty ; and the name of Alice is frequently 
mentioned with honor by the contemporary versifiers, Gaimar, 
Beneoit, and Philippe de Thaun. The works of these writers are 
still extant in manuscript, and show that their authors knew little 
of the inspiration of poetry. The turgid metaphors, the abrupt 
transitions, and the rapid movements, so characteristic of the 
Anglo-Saxon muse, though conceived in bad taste, showed at least 
indications of native genius; but the narratives of the Gallo- 
Norman poets are tame, prosaic, and interminable — and their 
authors seem to have known no beauty but the jingle of rhyme, 
and to have aimed at no excellence but that of spinning out their 
story to the greatest possible length. These poems, however, 
such as they were, delighted those for whom they were written, 
and, what was still better, brought wealth and popularity to their 
authors. 

During the reign of Henry, Geoffrey of Monmouth published 
his History of Britain; which he embellished with numerous 
tales respecting Arthur and his knights, and Merlin and his pro- 
phecies, borrowed from the songs and traditions The orioin of 
of the ancient Britons. This extraordinary work Romance. 
was accompanied by another of a similar description, the History 
of Charlemagne and his twelve peers; supposed to be compiled 
by Archbishop Turpin, from the songs of the French trouveres : 
and, about the same time, the adventures of Alexander the Great, 
by the pretended Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis, were 
brought by some of the crusaders into Europe. These three 
works supplied an inexhaustible store of matter for writers in 
verse and prose ; the deeds of Alexander, and Arthur, and Char- 
lemagne were repeated and embellished in a thousand forms; 
spells and enchantments, giants, hippogriphs, and dragons, ladies 
confined in durance by the power of necromancy, and delivered 
from confinement by the courage of their knights, captivated the 
imagination of our ancestors ; and a new species of writing was 
introduced, which retained its sway for centuries, and was known 

10 



110 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1135. 

by the appellation of Romance, because it was originally written 
in the Gallic idiom, an idiom corrupted from the ancient language 
of Rome. 



CHAPTER XII. 



CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. 

Innocent II. 
Celestin II. 
Lucius II. 
Eugenius III. 
Anastasius IV. 



Scotland. 
David I. 
Malcolm IV. 

Germany. 
Lothaire II. 
Conrad III. 
Erederic I. 



France. 

Louis VI. 
Louis VII. 

Spain. 
Alphonso VIII. 



Accession of Stephen — Invasion of the Scots — Battle of the Standard — Matilda 
lands in England — Stephen is taken prisoner, and released — Matilda leaves 
the kingdom — Henry asserts the claim of his Mother — Death of Stephen. — 
From A. D. 1135 to 1154. 

Henry had cheered his last moments with the hope that by 

his care the crown had been secured to Matilda: it was seized by 

a. d. 1135. ste- his nephew Stephen, whom he had cherished with 

phen seizes the . rr • /> /> i -ii-ii-i -i 

crown. the anection or a lather, and had destined to be 

the future support of her throne. Stephen was the third of the 
four sons that Adela, Henry's sister, had borne to her husband, the 
earl of Blois. He had attached himself to the fortunes of his 
uncle. From him he had received with the honor of knighthood 
several valuable estates in England; had earned by his valor in 
the field of Tenchebrai the Norman earldom of Moretoil; and 
afterward, by his marriage with Matilda, the daughter of the 
earl of Boulogne, had succeeded to the territories of his father-in- 
law. At each step his ambition had expanded; and on the death 
of Henry it urged him to become a candidate for the throne. 

With these views and expectations Stephen sailed from Whitsand, 
and landed on the coast of Kent. He was excluded from Dover 
and Canterbury by the inhabitants, who knew or suspected the 



1136 A. D.] STEPHEN. Ill 

real objects of his journey; but he was received Stephen lands in 
with welcome by the citizens of London, who im- eiafme^King and 
mediately proclaimed him king, and by those of fin ai J y crowned. 
Winchester, whom his brother had secured to his interest. At 
Winchester he was joined by the archbishop of Canterbury, by 
lloger, the powerful bishop of Sarum, and by William de Pont de 
1'Arche, who placed in his hands the keys of the castle, with 
those of the royal treasures. Though neither prelates nor barons 
had yet arrived or signified their acquiescence, the ceremony of 
his coronation was performed; and the new king promised upon 
oath not to retain the vacant prelacies for his own profit, not to 
molest laymen or clerks in the possession of their woods and 
forests, nor to levy the danegelt, though it had been repeatedly 
exacted by his late uncle. 

Stephen had long been the most popular nobleman in England ; 
and men were inclined to favour the pretensions of one whom 
they loved. The royal treasures, which he distributed with pro- 
fusion, while they confirmed the fidelity of his adherents, brought 
to his standard crowds of adventurers, who intimidated his enemies. 

In the month of January, 1136, the corpse of the late monarch 
arrived at .the abbey of Reading. Stephen, to demonstrate his 
respect for his uncle, proceeded to meet it with Respect shown 
all his attendants, and placed his shoulders under £ fnf^f^of th un- 
the bier. When the ceremony of the interment cle - 
was concluded, he rode to Oxford, and in a numerous assembly 
of prelates and barons, renewed the promises which he had made 
at his coronation. In a subsequent assembly, he produced a 
letter from the pope, Innocent II., confirming his succession to 
the crown, and granted additional liberties to the church. The 
prelates in return renewed their oath of allegiance, but with a 
conditional clause which had previously been adopted by some of 
the lay barons — that they would be faithful to him as long as he 
faithfully observed his engagements. 

It is now time to direct the reader's attention to the daughter 
of Henry. Unsuspicious of the designs of her cousin, she entered 
Normandy, and was admitted into several towns. Her husband 
followed with a numerous body of Angevins; but their excesses 
revived the animosity that had formerly divided the two nations; 



112 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1138. 



and before the end of the month he was driven back with disgrace 
into his own territories. 

In Britain, the first who drew the sword in the cause of 
Matilda was David, king of Scotland. He had sworn to support 

The king of Scot- her succession; and at the commencement of the 
land. ° year he crossed the borders, reduced Carlisle, Nor- 

ham, Alnwick, and Newcastle, and compelled the inhabitants to 
take an oath of fealty to the daughter of Henry. He had reached 
the walls of Durham, when he was opposed by Stephen at the 
head of a numerous army. The risk of an engagement induced 
him to pause ; if he was the uncle of the empress, so was he like- 
wise of the consort of her antagonist: a peace was speedily 
concluded; and to cement the friendship of the two kings, Henry, 
prince of Scotland, did homage to Stephen, and received from him 
the towns of Carlisle, Doncaster, and Huntingdon. 

While the king was detained in the north, Wales had risen in 
arms. It probably was indifferent to the Welsh chieftains 

The condition of whether the sceptre were swayed by Matilda or 
Wales. Stephen; but they eagerly seized the opportunity 

to punish their ancient foes, and after they had satiated themselves 
with plunder and carnage, retired to their mountains; where 
they were suffered to remain unmolested, while the king's atten- 
tion was engaged by more formidable enemies. 

Normandy for many years presented a most lamentable spectacle, 
torn by intestine divisions, and alternately ravaged by opposite 
parties. The great barons, having retired within their castles, 
maintained an air of independence ; and by occasionally waging 
war on one another, and supporting, as interest, or caprice, or 
resentment induced them, sometimes the cause of Stephen, some- 
times that of Matilda, contributed to prolong the miseries of their 
suffering country. 

The king of Scots resumed hostilities in 1188, urged, it is said, 
either by letters from Matilda, who reminded him of his former 

The king of scots engagements in her favor, or by resentment at the 
tie 3 " e conduct of Stephen, who had promised and then 

refused him the earldom of Northumberland. The Scots con- 
ducted the war with great ferocity. In the common despair, 
Thurstan, the old archbishop of York, displayed 
Thurttan Dergy in a decrepid frame the energy of a youthful 



1138 A. D.] STEPHExN. 113 

warrior. He assembled the northern barons, exhorted them to 
fight for their families, their country, and their God ; assured them 
of victory, and promised heaven to those who might fall in so 
sacred a cause. At the appointed time they repaired to York 
with their vassals, and were met by the parochial clergy, with the 
bravest of their parishioners ; three days were spent in fasting 
and devotion; on the fourth, Thurstan made them swear never to 
desert each other, and dismissed them with his blessing. Two 
miles beyond Northallerton they received advice of the approach 
of the Scots ; and the standard, which gave name to the battle, 
was hastily erected, the mast of a vessel strongly fastened into 
the framework of a carriage. In the centre of the cross which 
rose on its summit was fixed a box of silver, containing the sacra- 
ment; and below waved the banners of three patron saints, Peter, 
Wilfrid, and John of Beverly. From its foot Walter Espec, an 
experienced warrior, harangued his associates ; and at the conclu- 
sion of his speech, giving his hand to William of Albemarle, 
exclaimed in a loud voice, "I pledge thee my troth, either to 
conquer or to die." His words kindled a similar enthusiasm 
among his hearers, and the oath was repeated by every chieftain 
with confidence of success. But the Scots now approached ; the 
signal was given, the English knelt on the ground, The battle of the 
and the bishop of the Orkneys, the representative "Standard." 
of Thurstan, read the prayer of absolution from the carriage. 
With a loud shout they answered, "Amen," and rose to receive 
the shock of the enemy. 

The Scots, raising three shouts, after the manner of their nation, 
rushed on the English. The first ranks, unable to bear the 
pressure, retired slowly toward the standard; and the two flanks 
were surrounded and disordered by the multitude of the enemy; 
but the centre formed an impenetrable phalanx, which no shock 
could dissolve. It was in vain that the assailants sought with 
their swords to break through this forest of spears. Their courage 
only exposed them to the deadly aim of the archers ; and at the 
end of two hours, disheartened by their loss, they wavered, broke 
and fled. The king alone, surrounded by his guards, opposed, as 
he retired, the pursuit of his foes ; the rest dispersed themselves 
in every direction. Of seven-and-twenty thousand men, nearly 

10* 



114 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1139. 



one-half had perished in the battle and flight. This engagement 
is known in history as the " Battle of the Standard." 

David was still able to continue the war, and sent a body of 
forces to besiege the castle of Wark, in Northumberland. At 

David finally con- Carlisle he was visited by the cardinal Alberic, who 
dudes a peace. j^ landed in England as papal legate. This 
virtuous monk had passed through the track which had been the 
theatre of Scottish depredation, and was so affected with the 
horrors which he had witnessed, that on his knees he conjured 
the king to consent to a peace. David was at first inexorable, 
but peace was concluded in the beginning of the following year. 

In September, 1139, while Stephen was engaged in a fierce 
contest with many barons and prelates, Matilda landed on the 

Matilda lands on coast of Suffolk. With the small force of one 
folk. hundred and forty knights, she undertook to con- 

quer the throne of her father ; but the temerity of the attempt was 
justified by the promises of her partisans, and the dispute between 
Stephen and the clergy. Her brother Kobert, the soul of the 
enterprise, with twelve companions, left her to join his friends in 
the west, and by unfrequented roads eluded the pursuit and 
vigilance of his enemies ; Matilda herself, at the invitation of the 
queen dowager Alice, retired within the strong castle of Arundel. 
Stephen soon appeared at the foot of the walls ; the princesses 
were alarmed ; the queen pleaded, in excuse, the duty of hospi- 
tality ; the empress solicited the permission to follow her brother; 
and such was the weakness or infatuation of the king, that, to the 
astonishment of both friends and foes, he accepted the apology of 
the one, and granted the request of the other. 

England was soon exposed to all the horrors of civil war. The 
garrisons of the royal fortresses supported the cause of Stephen ; 

standard of Ma- the standard of Matilda was unfurled at Glouces- 
phen UU taken ' pd- ter ; Bristol, Canterbury, and Dover. Stephen be- 
soner - sieged the castle of Lincoln, which had been sur- 

prised by Ranulf, earl of Chester, a nobleman who had offered 
his services to both the king and the empress, and who had been 
equally mistrusted by both. Confiding his wife and family to the 
faith of the garrison, Ranulf escaped through the besieging 
army, and flew to implore the assistance of the earl, of Gloucester. 
With ten thousand men, Robert hastened to surprise the king, 



1141 A. D.] STEPHEN. 115 

but, when he had swum across the Trent, found the royal army 
drawn up to receive him. At the first shock, the cavalry fled ; 
the mass of infantry, animated by the presence of the king, firmly 
withstood the efforts of the multitude by which it was surrounded. 
Stephen fought with the energy of despair ; but was taken pri- 
soner, loaded with chains, and confined in the castle of Bristol. 

The clergy having declared in her favor, Matilda flattered her- 
self that she had secured the object of her ambition : her hopes 
were defeated by the impolicy of her own conduct. The imprudent 
She had been admitted into London, and had duct of aiauuia. 
issued orders for her coronation ; but, in the interval, the affec- 
tions of her friends were alienated by her arrogance, and the 
aversion of her enemies was inflamed by fines and prosecutions. 
To the solicitations of Stephen's queen for the release of her hus- 
band, she replied in terms of personal insult; and when the 
legate requested that, on the solemn resignation of the crown by 
his brother, the earldoms of Boulogne and Moretoil should be 
conferred on his nephew Eustace, he received a most contemptu- 
ous refusal. Neither did she attempt to conciliate the wavering 
minds of the Londoners. She imposed on them a heavy tax, as 
a punishment for their former attachment to Stephen, and scorn- 
fully refused their petition for the restoration of the privileges 
which they had enjoyed under Edward the Confessor. The queen 
of the captive monarch resolved to avail herself of the impru- 
dence of her rival. A body of horse, under her banner, appeared 
on the south side of the city : instantly the bells sounded the 
alarm ; the populace ran to arms ; and the empress would have 
been a prisoner had she not sprung from table, mounted her 
horse, and saved herself by a precipitate flight. Her most faith- 
ful friends accompanied her to Oxford; the rest dispersed to 
their respective castles. 

War continued, and Robert of Gloucester was taken prisoner 
by the friends of Stephen ; but, after some negotiation, it was 
agreed that he should be exchanged for the king. A long and 
dangerous sickness, however, confined Stephen to his chamber; 
and Robert embraced the opportunity to sail to the continent, and 
solicit the aid and presence of Geoffrey, the husband of Matilda. 
By that prince the invitation was declined, as he had undertaken 
the reduction of Normandy ; but he was willing to intrust to the 



L.-: 



116 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1147. 

care of the earl his eldest son Henry, the legitimate heir of Ma- 
tilda. Stephen marched to Oxford, and besieged the empress. 

Stephen lays At the end of ten weeks, the provisions of the 
Thf 6 flight ^nSa- garrison were consumed, and Matilda was a third 
tUda - time reduced to flight. It was a severe frost, and 

the ground was covered with snow. Attended by three knights, 
clothed in white, she issued at a very early hour from a portal : 
the nearest sentinel, who had been previously bribed, conducted 
her in silence between the posts of the enemy ; the ice bore her 
across the Thames ; she reached Abingdon on foot, and thence 
rode with expedition to Wallingford. 

The power of the two parties still remained fairly balanced. 
With the exception of the three northern counties, which obeyed 
the king of Scots, Stephen was acknowledged as sovereign in the 
eastern, Matilda in the western half of the kingdom. After 
some years, Matilda withdrew to Normandy, to 
draws to Norman- watch the course of events, and to take advantage 
fuses to crown the of the first favorable occurrence. Yet Stephen 
son of Stephen. derived no benefit from her departure. He had 
earned the enmity of the barons as well as of the clergy. He 
assembled all the prelates, and required them to crown his son 
Eustace. Archbishop Theobald refused : he had consulted, he 
said, the pope, and had been forbidden to comply; because, as 
Stephen had acquired the crown not by way of inheritance, but 
by open force, and in violation of his oath, he could have no right 
to transfer it to his posterity. In a paroxysm of rage, the king 
ordered his guards to imprison the prelates in the hall, and sent 
messengers to seize their temporalities : on cooler reflection, he 
resolved to confine his resentment to Theobald, whom he drove a 
second time into exile. The pontiff, however, took the arch- 
bishop under his protection, and either published in his favor a 
new, or confirmed the former sentence of excommunication and in- 
terdict against the king. 

Stephen viewed with anxiety the growing prosperity of Henry, 
the son of Matilda. At the age of sixteen, that young prince 
had visited his uncle, King David, at Carlisle, and had received 
from him the honor of knighthood. On his return, he obtained 
from his father, Geoffrey, the cession of the duchy of Normandy : 
at the death of that prince he succeeded to the earldom of Anjou ; 



1154 A. D.] STEPHEN. 117 

and by his marriage with Eleanor of Poitou, within six weeks 
after her divorce from the king of France, he had acquired the 
extensive duchy of Aquitine. Henry landed in Henryj the son 
England in 1152, to assert the claim of his mo- ? f , Matilda: he 

° ' ... lands in England. 

ther, and his standard was immediately joined by a. d. 1152. 
the ancient friends of his family. Eustace, the eldest of the 
king's sons, was, in the heat of the contest, removed by a sudden 
death; and the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of 
Winchester improved the opportunity to reconcile the jarring in- 
terests of the two parties. Stephen adopted Henry Stephen appoints 

„,. • j 1 1 • 1 • 1 ' Henry his succes- 

tor his son, appointed mm his successor, and gave sor. 
the kingdom of England, after his own death, to him and his 
heirs for ever. In return, the young prince did homage, and 
swore fealty to him. Henry received the homage of William, the 
surviving son of the king, and in return granted to him all the 
lands and honors possessed by Stephen before his accession to the 
throne, and added other possessions. The nobles on both sides 
swore that if either of the two princes broke his engagements 
they would desert him, and support the cause of his rival. The 
bishops and abbots, by Stephen's command, took the oath of 
fealty to Henry, and engaged to enforce the due execution of th» 
treaty by ecclesiastical censures. 

After this pacification, the two princes, to display the harmony 
in which they lived, visited together the cities of Winchester, 
London, and Oxford, and were received at each place in solemn 
procession, and with the most joyful acclamations. At Easter, 
they separated with demonstrations of the most cordial friendship. 
Henry revisited Normandy; and Stephen, a few months after- 
ward, died at Canterbury. He [ had reigned nine- stephen die8 at 
teen years, and was buried near the remains of his Canterbur y- 
wife and son, at Faversham, a convent which he had founded. 

Never did England, since the invasion of the Danes, present 
such a scene of misery as under the government of Stephen. 
Both parties plundered : and conflagration was t ■. . 

c 1 -i -l • 1 .,, The scene of mi- 

rrequently added to pillage. Winchester, Wor- sery under the go- 
cester, and Nottingham, rich and populous cities, phen? en 
were consumed, and most of the inhabitants perished in the 
flames. Such was the desolation of the land, say two contempo- 
rary historians, that villages and towns were left destitute of in- 



118 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



[A. D. 1154. 



habitants ; and in many parts a man might ride a whole day 
without discovering on his route one human being. 

The character of Stephen has been drawn by his adversaries as 
well as his partisans ; and, if there be some difference in the co- 
stephen'scharao- lorin S> . tLe outlines of the two pictures are per- 
ter - fectly similar. It is admitted that he was prompt 

in decision and bold in action; that his friends applauded his 
generosity, and his enemies admired his forbearance ; that he won 
the high by courtesy, the low by condescension, all by his affa- 
bility and benevolence. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



my t\t jtonfc. 



CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. 
Anastasius IV. 
Adrian IV. 
Alexander III. 
Lucius III. 
Urban III. 
Gregory VIII. 
Clement III. 



Scotland. 

Malcolm IV. 
AVilliam. 



Germany. 
Frederic I. 



France. 
Louis VII. 
Philip Augustus. 

Spain. 
Alphonso VIII. 
Sancho III. 
Alphonso IX. 



Accession of Henry II. — The rise of Thomas a Becket — "War in Wales — Dispute 
between Henry and the Primate — The Assassination of tho Archbishop — 
Conquest of Ireland — Rebellion of the King's Sons — His Death and Charac- 
ter.— From A. D. 1154 to 11S9. 

It were difficult to imagine a more glorious prospect than that 

which opened itself to the youth of Henry. By the death of 

The extensive his father, he inherited Touraine and Aniou; in 

possessions of Hen- .,.«,' i i i tit • i „ 

ry. right ot his mother, he possessed Maine and .Nor- 

mandy ; and with the hand of Eleanor he had received her ample 
portion, the seven provinces of Poitou, Saintogne, Auvergne, 
Perigord, Limousin, Angoumois, and Guienne. A third part of 
France, almost the whole western coast from the borders of Pi- 



1154 A. D.] HENRY THE SECOND. 119 



cardy to the mountains of Navarre, acknowledged his authority ; 
and the vassal who did homage to the sovereign for his dominions 
was in reality a more powerful prince than the king who received 
it. In his twenty-first year, the death of Stephen added to these 
extensive territories the kingdom of England. 

He was impatient to take possession of the crown, which had 
been secured to him by the late treaty, but time was requisite to 
collect an escort becoming the dignity and sufficient for the pro- 
tection of the new king; and a long continuance of stormy 
weather confined him a prisoner in the haven of Barfleur. After 
a vexatious delay of more than six weeks, he Henry lands in 
landed in England. The enmity of the adhe- ed at Westminster. 
rents of Stephen had been silenced by their fears ; and the vigi- 
lance and authority of Archbishop Theobald had maintained the 
public tranquillity. At Winchester he received the homage of 
the nobility ; at Westminster he was crowned, with his queen, 
before an immense concourse of people and the foreign barons 
who had accompanied him from France. A few days were given 
to the festivities and pageantry usual on such occasions ; but, at 
the same time, the new king did not forget the more important 
concerns of state. In one council, he appointed the great officers 
of the crown ; in another, he confirmed to his subjects all the 
rights and liberties which they had possessed during the reign of 
his grandfather ; and in a third, he induced the barons and pre- 
lates to swear fealty to his eldest son William, and, in the event 
of William's death, to his second son, Henry, a child still in the 
cradle. 

The earl of Leicester was appointed grand justiciary, with the 
most ample powers ; a new coinage was issued, of standard weight 
and purity; and the foreign mercenaries, who had so long in- 
fested England, received orders to quit the kingdom by a certain 
day, under the penalty of death. Henry exerted iienry curbs the 

, . .„ ,, />ii t power of the ba- 

nimselt to curb the power of the barons, and com- rons. 
pelled Malcolm, king of Scots, to exchange the three northern 
counties, which had been so long in possession of his grandfather 
David, for the earldom of Huntingdon, to which the Scottish 
princes advanced a claim on account of their descent from Earl 
Waltheof. 

The same month which had witnessed the coronation of Henry 



120 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1158, 

Lad been signalized by the succession of Nicholas Breakspeare to 
Nicholas Break- the throne of the Vatican. This prelate, the only 
speare. Englishman who ever sate in the chair of St. 

Peter, had been raised by his merit from one of the lowest situa- 
tions in life, to that which was deemed the highest dignity in 
Christendom. He was the son of Robert Chambers, an obscure 
clerk, and afterward monk of St. Albans, and had been rejected 
by the abbot of that monastery, on the ground of incapacity. 
Stung with this disgrace, and the reproaches of his father, he 
travelled to Paris, without any other resource than the alms of 
the charitable; studied with applause in that university, and, 
wandering into Provence, was admitted among the regular canons 
of St. Rufus. By virtue and piety he rose gradually to the pon- 
tifical throne. In England this intelligence was hailed with 
transport. Every individual felt proud that one of his country- 
men had been raised to the first dignity in the Christian world ; 
and three bishops were deputed to offer to the new pope the con- 
gratulations of the king and the nation. 

Thomas h Becket now (1158) appeared on the public stage, on 
which he played a prominent part for many years. He was the 
Thomas a Becket: son of a London citizen, was placed in his child- 
eariy life. hood under the care of the canons of Merton, and 

afterward continued his studies in the schools of the metropolis, 
of Oxford, and of Paris. When his father died, he was admitted 
into the family of Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, and, with 
the permission of his patron, left England, to improve himself in 
the knowledge of the civil and canon law. He attended the lec- 
tures of Gratian at Bologna, and of another celebrated professor 
at Auxerre. As soon as he returned, his acquirements were ap- 
preciated, and he obtained rapid preferment in the church. The 
recommendation of Theobald introduced him to the notice, 
and his own merit entitled him to the protection and friendship 
of Henry. He was appointed chancellor, the adopted father and 
preceptor of the young prince, and the depositary of the royal 
favor. His equipage displayed the magnificence of a prince ; his 
table was open to every person who had business at court ; he 
took precedence of all the lay barons ; and among his vassals 
were numbered many knights, who had spontaneously done him 
homage, with the reservation of their fealty to the sovereign. 



11G1A.D.] HENRY THE SECOND. 121 

The pride of Henry was gratified with the ascendancy of his fa- 
vorite. He lived with Becket on terms of the most easy fami- 
liarity; and seemed to have resigned into his hands the govern- 
ment of his dominions both in England and on the continent. 

Becket did not merely give his advice; when occasion offered, 
he acted the part of a negotiator and warrior. The king of 
France ; who dreaded the aggrandizement of a vassal already 
more powerful than his lord, had threatened to oppose the pre- 
tensions of Henry to the earldom of Nantes. Becket is sent to 
Becket was immediately despatched to Paris. His Pans - 
magnificence astonished the inhabitants. As he passed along, the 
natives were heard to exclaim, " What manner of man must the 
king of England be, when his chancellor travels in such state !" 
His address lulled the jealousy of the French monarch. The 
king followed, to ratify the engagements of his minister; and 
Henry, his eldest son, (for William had died,) was affianced to 
Margaret, infant daughter of Louis. 

But the future union of their children formed too feeble a tie 
to bind princes naturally divided by a multiplicity of jarring and 
important interests. Their friendship had scarcely commenced 
when it was interrupted for a short time by a contest respecting 
the duchy of Toulouse. Another war broke out between them in 
1160, but was also brief. 

Disputes respecting the papacy arose about this period. On 
the death of Breakspeare, who had taken the name of Adrian, 
the emperor of Germany supported Victor; ^ Disputes respect- 
France and England acknowledged Alexander, ing the papacy, 
who left Rome, and, residing in France, exercised the papal au- 
thority. The college of cardinals had separated into two parties. 
Three-and-twenty votes were given in favor of Orlando, the chan- 
cellor of the apostolic see ; three for Octavian, cardinal priest of 
St. Cecily's. Each assumed the title and exercised the authority 
of pope, the former under the name of Alexander III., and the 
latter under that of Victor IV. 

In 1161, Becket, at that time in France, was appointed arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, having been induced, against his own judg- 
ment, (for he saw dangers approaching,) to acqui- Becket appointed 

1 il. tc t x i • 1 tt archbishop of Can- 

esce, wiien the see was offered to him by Henry, terbury. 
He sailed to England; the prelates and a deputation of the 
h ll 



122 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1162 



monks of Canterbury assembled in the king's chapel at West- 
minster ; every vote was given in his favor ; the applause of the 
nobility testified their satisfaction, and Prince Henry, in the name 
of his father, gave the royal assent. Becket, who had been only 
deacon, was ordained priest by the bishop of Rochester ; and the 
next day, having been declared free from all secular obligations, 
for he had fought as a soldier, he was consecrated by Henry of 
Winchester. It was a most pompous ceremony, for all the no- 
bility of England, to gratify the king, attended in honor of his 
favorite. The ostentatious parade and worldly pursuits of the 
chancellor were instantly renounced by the archbishop, who, in 
the fervor of his conversion, prescribed to himself, as a punish- 
ment for the luxury and vanity of his former life, a daily course 
of secret mortification. His conduct was now marked by the 
strictest attention to the proprieties of his station. To the train 
of knights and noblemen, who had been accustomed to wait on 
him, succeeded a few companions selected from the most virtuous 
and learned of his clergy. His diet was abstemious ; his charities 
were abundant ; his time was divided into certain portions, allot- 
ted to prayer and study, and the episcopal functions. These he 
found it difficult to unite with those of the chancellor ; and there- 
fore, as at his consecration he had been declared free from all se- 
cular engagements, he resigned that office into the hands of the 
king. 

For more than twelve months the primate appeared to enjoy 
his wonted ascendancy in the royal favor. But during his ab- 

Henry changes sence ; tne warmth of Henry's affection insensibly 
bis disposition to- evaporated. The sycophants of the court, who 

ward the arch- r .... -, 

bishop. observed the change, industriously misrepresented 

the actions of the archbishop, and declaimed in exaggerated 
terms against the loftiness of his views, the superiority of his 
talents, and the decision of his character. Such hints made a 
deep impression on the suspicious and irritable mind of the king, 
who now began to pursue his late favorite with a hatred as vehe- 
ment as had been the friendship with which he had honored him. 
That which brought them into immediate collision was a contro- 
versy respecting the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts. 

These courts were privileged to try all offences committed by 
the clergy. The king desired to render clergymen amenable to 



1162 A. D.] HENRY THE SECOND. 123 



the civil tribunals. Beeket and several other ^ eoclesiafitical 
prelates resisted the monarch. After a protracted courts, a council 
struggle between the crown and the church, a don. 
council was summoned to meet at Clarendon, to arrange the mat- 
ters which were in dispute. In this assembly, John of Oxford, 
one of the royal chaplains, was appointed president by the king. 
His angry manner and threatening tone exasperated the primate, 
who ventured to express a wish that a clause saving the dignity 
of the clerical order might be agreed on. At this request, the 
indignation of the king was extreme ; he threatened Beeket with 
exile or death ; the door of the next apartment was thrown open, 
and discovered a body of knights with their garments tucked up, 
and their swords drawn ; the nobles and prelates besought the 
archbishop to relent ; and two knights Templars, on their knees, 
conjured him to prevent, by his acquiescence, the massacre of all 
the bishops, which otherwise would certainly ensue. Sacrificing 
his own judgment to their entreaties rather than their arguments, 
he yielded, and on the following day the " Constitutions of Cla- 
rendon" were signed by the king, the prelates, and thirty-seven 
barons. The principal of these were the following : — I. It was 
enacted that the custody of every vacant archbi- The p r i neipal ar . 
shopric, bishopric, abbey, and priory of royal found- gj.-{. u s ti °^ he J.' ^ a ; 
ation, ought to be given, and its revenues during rendon." 
the occupancy, be paid to the king ; and that the election of a 
new incumbent ought to be made in consequence of the king's 
writ, by the chief clergy of the church, assembled in the king's 
chapel, with the assent of the king, and with the advice of such 
prelates as the king might call to his assistance. II. By the 
second and seventh articles, it was provided that in almost every 
suit, civil or criminal, in which each or either party was a clergy- 
man, the proceeding should commence before the king's justices, 
who should determine whether the cause ought to be tried in the 
secular or episcopal courts; and that in the latter case a civil 
officer should be present to report the proceedings, and the de- 
fendant, if he were convicted in a criminal action, should lose his 
benefit of clergy. III. It was ordered that no tenant in chief of 
the king, no officer of his household, or of his demesne, should be 
excommunicated, or his lands put under an interdict, until appli- 
cation had been made to the king, or, in his absence, to the grand 



121 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1162. 

justiciary, who ought to take care that what belonged to the king's 
courts should be there determined, and what belonged to the ec- 
clesiastical courts should be determined in them. IV. The next 
was also a custom deriving its origin from the Conquest, that no 
archbishop, bishop, or dignified clergyman, could lawfully go 
beyond the sea without the king's permission. Its object was to 
prevent complaints at the papal court, to the prejudice of the 
sovereign. V. It was enacted that appeals should proceed regu- 
larly from the archdeacon to the bishop, and from the bishop to 
the archbishop. The remaining articles are of minor importance. 
They confine pleas of debt, and disputes respecting advowsons, to 
the cognizance of the king's justices; declare that clergymen 
who hold lands of the crown, hold by barony, and are bound to 
the same services as the lay barons ; and forbid the bishops to ad- 
mit to orders the sons of villeins, without the license of their 
respective lords. 

In great agony of mind, Becket reached Canterbury, where he 

condemned his late weakness, interdicted himself from the exer- 

Becket repents of cise of his functions, wrote to Alexander a full 

his conduct at the „, . .-,...,.. 

council. account ot the transaction, and solicited absolution 

from that pontiff. It was believed that if he had submitted with 
cheerfulness at Clarendon, he would have recovered his former 
ascendancy over the royal mind; but his tardy assent did not 
allay the indignation which his opposition had kindled ; and his 
subsequent repentance for that assent closed the door to forgive- 
ness. 

Soon afterward, Becket — for what particular purpose is not 
mentioned — waited on the king at Woodstock. The gates were 
closed against him ; an indignity which awakened in his mind 
the most fearful misbodings. In this perplexity he repaired to 
Romney, one of his manors, and on two succeeding nights put to 
Becket attempts sea * n a ^°^) ^i tn three companions ; but the 
to go to France. W md proved unfavorable on both occasions, and 
compelled him to return. It had been his intention to steal over 
to the French coast, and to consult the pontiff in person : taking, 
however, these failures for indications that God disapproved of 
the design, he returned to Canterbury, with the hope that, from 
the precautions which he had adopted, his secret would not tran- 
spire. But there was a traitor somewhere in his household. The 



1164 A. D.] HENRY THE SECOND. 125 

intelligence had been conveyed to the court, and new fuel was 
added to the king's irritation. 

The ruin of a single bishop now became the chief object that 
occupied and perplexed the mind of this mighty monarch. A 
series of charges was prepared : and the primate Henry deter- 

Y * ■* . mines to ruin the 

was summoned to a great council at .Northampton, bishop. 
He obeyed ; and the king's refusal to accept from him the kiss 
of peace, admonished him of his danger. John of Oxford, a 
favorite clerk, presided; Henry himself performed the part of 
the prosecutor. He accused the archbishop of contempt of the 
royal authority, and brought forward several most oppressive pe- 
cuniary demands. Becket adopted the resolution of trusting for 
protection to the sacredness of his character. Early one morning 
he celebrated the mass of St. Stephen, the first martyr. It had 
been his intention to go from the altar to the court, attired as he 
was, in his sacerdotal vestments and pallium; but from this he 
was dissuaded by two knights Templars, who feared that it might 
be interpreted as an attempt at intimidation. Exchanging them, 
therefore, for his usual garments, he proceeded to the hall; and, 
at the door, taking the archiepiscopal cross from the bearer, en- 
tered with it in his hand, and followed by all the bishops. It 
was his object to remind the court that he was their spiritual 
chief and father ; but Henry and the barons, surprised, perhaps 
awed, at the unusual spectacle, hastily withdrew to an upper 
apartment, to which, after a pause, they were followed by the 
rest of the bishops. The primate, thus left alone with his clerks, 
seated himself on a bench against the wall, and with calm and 
intrepid dignity awaited the result. Urged by the king, some 
bishops renounced Becket's authority, and the earl of Leicester 
was proceeding to pass sentence on him, but the primate refused 
to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the court, and said that he 
would appeal to the pope. He soon afterward left England for 
France. His first care was to visit the king of The archbishop 
France, who received him with veneration, and a visitfthe pope°ai 
promise of protection ; his next, to consult Pope Sens - 
Alexander, who at that time resided in the city of Sens. There 
he was confronted by a deputation of English bishops and barons. 
They had arrived long before, and had improved the opportunity 
to prejudice, by their representations, the mind of the pontiff 

11* 



126 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1170. 



against the archbishop, and to secure, by presents, friends in the 
college of cardinals. But the reading of the " Constitutions" 
closed the mouths of his adversaries. Alexander, having con- 
demned in express terms ten of the articles, recommended the 
archbishop to the care of the abbot of Pontigny, and exhorted 
him to bear with resignation the hardships of exile. When 
Thomas surrendered his archbishopric into the hands of the 
pope, his resignation was hailed by a part of the consistory as 
the readiest means of terminating a vexatious and dangerous con- 
troversy ; but Alexander preferred honor to convenience, and, 
refusing to abandon a prelate who had sacrificed the friendship 
of a king for the interests of the church, reinvested him with the 
archiepiscopal dignity. 

Henry's attention was for some time occupied with the effort 
to quell an insurrection in Wales. He met with only partial 
success, and sullied his fame by the perpetration of cruelties on 
his prisoners. In 1166, he added the province of Bretagne to 
his dominions, by betrothing his son Geoffrey to the daughter of 
the duke of Bretagne. 

Amid these transactions, the eyes of the king were still fixed 
on Becket; and, by his order, the punishment of treason was 
denounced against any person who should presume to bring into 
England letters of excommunication or interdict from either the 
Henry confiscates pontiff or the archbishop. He confiscated the es- 
preiate. " tates of that prelate, commanded his name to be 

erased from the liturgy, and seized the revenues of every clergy- 
man who had followed him into France, or had sent to him pe- 
cuniary assistance. Pontigny belonged to the Cistercians, and 
Henry informed them that if they continued to afford an asylum 
to the " traitor," not one of their order should be permitted to 
remain within his dominions. The archbishop was compelled to 
quit his retreat ; but Louis immediately offered him the city of 
Sens for his residence ; and here, as he had done at Pontigny, 
Becket led the solitary and mortified life of a recluse. 

When the antipope Victor died, Alexander, being established 
at Borne, became better able to assist Becket. Henry feared 
Alexander, and opened negotiations, but at an interview he re- 
fused to give the kiss of peace to the archbishop. The treaty 
was, however, some time afterward renewed ; Henry became re- 



1170 A. D.] HENRY THE SECOND. 127 

conciled, at least in outward appeai-ance, to Becket; Henry becomes 
promised him safety and peace in England; the K$£*to£ 
restoration of his dignities ; and also contracted "to En siand. 
make compensation to the Church for the insults which had been 
offered to her, in the person of the primate. Becket, after an 
absence of six years, returned to England, accompanied by John, 
bishop of Oxford. Pie carried with him letters of excommunica- 
tion against three prelates, for having officiated at the coronation 
of the son of Henry, and otherwise abetting the king. These 
prelates sent soldiers to seize the letters, but Becket, hearing of 
their intention, gave them to a messenger, who handed them 
publicly to the bishops, at which circumstance they were so indig- 
nant, that they went to Henry, in France, and endeavored as much 
as possible to rekindle discord between him and Becket. 

Under the protection of his conductor, the primate reached 
Canterbury, where he was joyfully received by the clergy and 
people. Thence he prepared to visit Woodstock, the residence 
of the young Henry, to pay his respects to the prince, and to 
justify his late conduct; but the courtiers, who dreaded his influ- 
ence over the mind of his former pupil, procured a peremptory 
order for him to return, and confine himself to his own diocess. 
He obeyed, and spent the following days in prayer and the func- 
tions of his station. Yet they were days of distress and anxiety. 
The menaces of his enemies seemed to derive importance from 
each succeeding event. His provisions were hourly intercepted ; 
his property was plundered; his servants were beaten and insulted. 
On Christmas-day he ascended the pulpit ; his sermon was dis- 
tinguished by the earnestness and animation with which he spoke; 
at the conclusion he observed that those who thirsted for his blood 
would soon be satisfied, but that he would first avenge the wrongs 
of his Church, by excommunicating Banulph and Robert de Broc, 
who for seven years had not ceased to inflict every injury in then- 
power on him, on his clergy, and on his monks. On the follow- 
ing Tuesday, four knights, Reginald Fitzurse, Wil- Four knights re- 
liam Tracy, Hugh de Moreville, and Richard S£ ca J£ p£ 
Brito, arrived secretly in the neighborhood. They mate 
had been present in Normandy, when the king, irritated by the 
representations of the three bishops, had exclaimed, " Of the 
cowards who eat my bread, is there not one who will free me from 



128 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1170. 



this turbulent priest ?" and mistaking this passionate expression 
for the royal license, had bound themselves by oath to return to 
England, and either carry off or murder the primate. They as- 
sembled at Saltwood, the residence of the Brocs, to arrange their 
operations. 

The next day, after dinner, when the archbishop was transact- 
ing business in a private apartment, it was announced that four 
knights wished to speak with him from the king. He ordered 
them to be admitted, and at the same time sent for the principal 
persons in his household, to be present. The knights entered 
The conduct of very unceremoniously, and seated themselves apart 
?re P 'm i f t ^f a the on the floor. Becket, who pretended at first not 
archbishop. £ no tice their entrance, casting his eyes upon 

them, saw that three of the four were well known to him, having 
been formerly in his service, and done homage to him. He 
saluted them, but the salute was returned with insult. They 
ordered him, as if they had such a commission from the king, to 
absolve the excommunicated prelates, and to make satisfaction to 
the young Henry, whom he had traitorously attempted to deprive 
of the crown. He replied with firmness, and occasionally with 
warmth, that if he had published the papal letters, it had been 
with the permission of his sovereign ; that the case of the arch- 
bishop of York had been reserved to the pontiff; that with respect 
to the other bishops, he was willing to absolve them, whenever 
they should take the accustomed oath of submission to the deter- 
mination of the Church ; and that, so far from wishing to take 
the crown from his former pupil, the young king, he called God 
to witness that he would, if it were in his power, heap additional 
crowns upon his head. They then declared that, if such were his 
resolve, he must quit England for ever. Neither he nor his could 
have peace in the king's dominions. "No," exclaimed the arch- 
bishop; " never again shall the sea lie between me and my Church. 
Here I am. If I am permitted to perform my duties, it is well ; 
if not, I submit to the will of God. But how comes it that you, 
knowing what was heretofore between us, dare to threaten me in 
my own house ?" " We shall do more than threaten," was the 
reply. Fitzurse then called upon the archbishop's men to give 
him back their homage ; and ordered all present, in the king's 
name, to keep watch over him, that he did not escape. " Have 



1170 A. D.] 



HENRY THE SECOND. 



129 



no fear of that," he exclaimed, following them to the door; "come 
when you may, you will find me here." The knights withdrew 
to a large house immediately opposite, where they armed them- 
selves and their followers ; and, to prevent a rescue, sent an order 
in the king's name to the mayor and his brethren, to preserve the 
peace in the city. 

At the departure of the knights, the archbishop returned to his 
seat, apparently cool and collected. Neither in tone nor gesture 
did he betray the slightest apprehension, thoudi The fortitude dis- 

. J , , . i -, played by the arch- 

COnsternatlOn and despair were depicted on every bishop. 

countenance around him. It was the hour of the evening service, 
and at the sound of the psalmody in the choir, a voice exclaimed, 
" To the church — it will afford protection." But Becket had said 
that he would await them there, and refused to move from the 
place. Word was now brought that the knights had forced their 
way through the garden, and made an entrance by the windows. 
A few moments later they were heard at no great distance, break- 
ing down with axes a strong partition of oak which impeded their 
progress. In a paroxysm of terror the archbishop's attendants 
closed around him, and, notwithstanding his resistance, bore him 
with pious violence through the cloister into the church. The 
door was immediately closed and barred against the assassins, who 
were already in sight. 

Becket walked leisurely along the transept, and was ascending 
the steps which led to his favorite altar, when he heard the cries 
of the knights, demanding admission at the door. Without hesi- 
tation, he ordered it to be thrown open, saying that He directs the 

.. /./-iii it , i i m- doors of the church 

the house ot Uod should not be made a military to be opened, 
fortress. Immediately his attendants, monks, and clergy, dis- 
persed to conceal themselves, some behind the columns, others 
under the altars. Had he followed their example, he might have 
saved his life, for it was growing dark, and both the crypts, and 
a staircase before him, which led to the roof, offered places of 
concealment. But he turned to meet his enemies, and, stationing 
himself with his back against a column, between the altars of St. 
Mary and St. Bennet, waited their approach. 

The four knights, and their twelve companions, rushed into 
the church, with drawn swords, and loud cries. " To me, ye 
king's men," shouted their leader. " Where is the traitor ?" ex- 



130 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1170. 



claimed Hugh of Horsey, a military sub-deacon, known by the 
characteristic surname of Manclerc. No answer was returned ; 

The heroic con- but to tne question, " Where is the archbishop ?" 
duct of the prelate. jacket replied, "Here I am, the archbishop, but 
no traitor. What is your will?" They turned to him, and in- 
sisted that he should immediately absolve all whom he had placed 
under ecclesiastical censures j to which he replied that, until they 
had promised satisfaction, he could not. " Then die/' exclaimed 
a voice. "I am ready," returned the prelate, "to die for the 
cause of God and the Church. But I forbid you, in the name of 
the Almighty God, to touch any one of my household, clerk or 
layman." 

There seems to have been some hesitation on the part of the 
murderers. They would rather have shed his blood without the 
church than within its walls. An attempt was made by some of 
them to drag him away; but he resisted it with success, through 
the aid of a clergyman called Edward Grim, who threw his arms 
round the archbishop's waist. " Reginald," said Becket to Fitz- 
urse, " how dare you do this ? Remember that you have been 
my man." " I am now the king's man," replied the assassin, 

The assassins aiming a blow at the primate's head. Grim inter- 

tion of the arch- , . . . . . . . . . . 

bishop. posed his arm, wliicn was broken and severed in 

two ; still the sword passed through Becket's cap, and wounded 
him on the crown. As he felt the blood trickling down his 
cheek, he wiped it away with his sleeve, and having joined his 
hands, and bent his head in the attitude of prayer, said, " Into 
thy hands, Lord, I commend my spirit." In this posture, with 
his face to his murderers, and without shrinking or speaking, he 
awaited a second stroke, which threw him on his knees and 
elbows. The third stroke was given by Richard Brito, with 
such violence that he cut off the upper part of the archbishop's 
head, and broke his own sword on the pavement. The murderers 
were retiring, when Hugh of Horsey, turning back, set his foot 
on the neck of the corpse, and drawing the brain out of the skull 
with the point of his sword, scattered it around. " Fear not," 
he said, " the man will never rise again." They returned to the 
palace, which they rifled, taking away with them spoil, as it was 
estimated, to the value of two thousand marks. 

Thus, at the age of fifty-three, perished this extraordinary man, 



1171 A.D.] HENRY THE SECOND 131 

a martyr to what lie deemed to be his duty — the preservation of 
the immunities of the Church. The moment of uis death the 

. . . i c i • TT- triumph of his 

his death was the triumph ot his cause. His per- cause, 
sonal virtues and exalted station, the dignity and composure 
with which he met his fate, the sacredness of the place where the 
murder was perpetrated — all contributed to inspire men with hor- 
ror for his enemies, and veneration for his character. The advo- 
cates of u the customs" were silenced. Those who had been eager 
to condemn, were now the foremost to applaud his conduct ; and 
his bitterest foes sought to remove from themselves the odium of 
having been his persecutors. The cause of the Church again flou- 
rished; its liberties seemed to derive new life and additional 
vigor from the blood of their champion. 

At the time of Becket's murder, Henry was in Normandy. 
The news plunged him at once into the deepest melancholy. 
Shut up in his private closet, for three days he Henry, on heap- 

,.. pi i • 1 ing of the primate's 

obstinately refused to take nourishment, or to death, 
admit the service of his attendants. From this state he was 
aroused, on the fourth day, by the importunities of his ministers; 
and to avert the papal indignation, five envoys were immediately 
despatched to Italy, with almost unlimited powers. Alexander 
refused to see them. His grief was not less real The grief of the 
than that of the king; but it proceeded from a FXuigencTollhf 
different cause. He attributed the murder to the death of Becket 
lenity with which he had hitherto treated the adversaries of the 
primate ; and that he might decide on his future conduct without 
being swayed by the interested advice of others, he secluded him- 
self for eight days from the company of his most confidential 
friends. On the Thursday before Easter he gave audience to the 
envoys. They warmly asserted the innocence of their master. 
Alexander excommunicated in general terms the assassins, with 
all their advisers, abettors, and protectors ; confirmed the inter- 
dict which had been laid on all the king's dominions in Gaul ; 
and appointed legates in France to take cognisance of the cause. 
This intelligence, more favorable than he had expected, was re- 
ceived with satisfaction by Henry ; but as he was ignorant of the 
instructions and intentions of the legates, he deemed it prudent 
to withdraw from Normandy before their arrival. He landed in 
England in the beginning of August ; two months were spent in 



l_r 



132 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1171 



the collection of a powerful army; and in October, 1171, a fleet 
of four hundred sail bore him to Waterford, in Ireland, where his 
presence, he alleged, was necessary to receive the submission of 
the natives; his real motive, if we may believe contemporary 
historians, was to elude with decency the visit of the legates. 

That the ancient inhabitants of Ireland were chiefly of Celtic 
origin, is evident from the language still spoken by their descend- 
ants. Of their manners, polity, and religion we may safely judge 
from analogy. There can be no doubt that they lived in the same 
rude and uncivilized state in which their neighbors were disco- 
vered by the legions of Rome and the teachers of Christianity. 
Ireland: st. Pa- Though the gospel had been preached in Ireland 

trick • Irish litera- 

ture. ' at a more early period, the general conversion of 

tbe natives had been reserved for the zeal of St. Patrick. Tbis 
celebrated missionary was born in the north-west of France, near 
Boulogne. He commenced his labors in the year 482, and after 
a life of indefatigable exertion, died at an advanced age in 472. 
His disciples appear to have inherited the spirit of their teacher ; 
churches and monasteries were successively founded ; every spe- 
cies of learning known at the time was assiduously cultivated. It 
was the peculiar happiness of these ecclesiastics to escape the visits 
of the barbarians, who in the fifth and sixth centuries depopulated 
and dismembered the western empire. When science was almost 
extinguished on the continent, it still emitted a faint light from 
the remote shores of Erin; strangers from Britain, Gaul, and 
Germany resorted to the Irish schools, and Irish missionaries esta- 
blished monasteries and imparted instruction on the banks of the 
Danube, and amid the snows of the Apennines. During this period, 
and under such masters, the natives were gradually reclaimed from 
the ignorance and pursuits of savage life ; but their civilization was 
retarded by the opposite influence of their national institutions ; it 
was finally arrested by the invasions of the Northmen, who, from 
the year 748, during more than two centuries, almost annually 
visited the island. These savages traversed it in every direction; 
went through their usual round of plunder, bloodshed, and devas- 
tation; and at last, occupying the seacoasts, formed settlements 
at the mouths of the navigable rivers. The result was the same 
in Ireland as in Britain and Gaul. Hunted by the invaders into 
the forests, and compelled to earn a precarious subsistence by 



1171 A. D.] HENRY THE SECOND. 133 

stealth and rapine, the natives forgot the duties of religion, lost 
their relish for the comforts of society, and quickly relapsed into 
the habits and vices of barbarism. 

The national institutions just alluded to, as hostile to the pro- 
gress of civilization, were tanistry and gavelkind. The law of 
tanistry regulated the succession to all dignities, Theiawoftoms- 
from the highest to the lowest. It carefully ex- *» and gavelkind. 
eluded the sons from inheriting, as of right, the authority of their 
father ; and the tanist, the heir apparent, was elected by the suf- 
frages of the sept during the lifetime of the ruling chieftain. If 
the reigning family could not supply a fit person, the new tanist 
was selected from the next branch in the sept, and thus every in- 
dividual could flatter himself that in the course of a few genera- 
tions the chieftainry might fall to the lot of his own posterity. 
Gavelkind is that species of tenure by which lands descend to all 
the sons equally, and without any consideration to primogeniture. 
It prevailed in former ages among all the British tribes; and 
some relics of it, in an improved form, remain in England even 
at the present day. Among the Irish it existed as late as the 
reign of James the First, and still retained the rude features of 
the original institution. While it excluded all the females, both 
the widow and the daughters, from the possession of land, it 
equally admitted all the males. 

When the natives, after a long struggle, assumed the ascend- 
ancy over the Danes, the restoration of tranquillity was prevented 
by the ambition of their princes, who, during more than a hun- 
dred years, contended for the sovereignty of the island. The 
ancient division of the kingdom into five provinces or kingdoms 
was still retained ; but the nominal sovereignty over the whole, 
which for several generations had been possessed by the O'Neals, 
had of late been assumed by different chieftains, and was now 
claimed by the O'Connors, kings of Connaught. The seaports, 
inhabited chiefly by the descendants of the Ostmen, were places 
of some trade. Dublin is styled the rival of London ; and the 
wines of Languedoc were imported in exchange for hides. But 
the majority of the natives shunned the towns, and The manners ana 

, . j . , , ■, ml „ n customs of the na- 

lived m huts in the country. They preferred pas- tires, 
turage to agriculture. Restraint and labor were deemed by them 
the worst of evils ; liberty and indolence, the most desirable of 

12 



134 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1171. 

blessings. The children owed little to the care of their parents; 
but, shaped by the hand of nature, they acquired, as they grew 
up, elegant forms, which, aided by their lofty stature and florid 
complexion, excited the admiration of the invaders. Their cloth- 
ing was scanty, fashioned after the manner which to the eye of 
Giraldus appeared barbarous, and spun from the wool of their 
sheep, sometimes dyed, but generally in its natural state. In 
battle, they measured the valor of the combatants by their con- 
tempt of artificial assistance ; and when they beheld the English 
knights covered with iron, hesitated not to pronounce them devoid 
of real courage. Their own arms were a short lance, or two jave- 
lins, a sword called a skene, about fifteen inches long, and a 
hatchet of steel, called a " sparthe." The sparthe proved a most 
formidable weapon. It was wielded with one hand, but with such 
address and impetuosity, as generally to penetrate through the 
best-tempered armor. To bear it was the distinction of freemen ; 
and, as it was always in the hand, it was frequently made the in- 
strument of revenge. They constructed their houses of timber 
and wicker-work, with an ingenuity which extorted the praise of 
the English. Their churches were generally built of the same 
materials ; and when Archbishop Malachy. began to erect one of 
stone, the very attempt excited an insurrection of the people, who 
reproached him with abandoning the customs of his country, and 
introducing those of Gaul. In temper, the natives are described 
as irascible and inconstant, warmly attached to their friends, 
faithless and vindictive toward their enemies. Music was the 
acquirement in which they principally sought to excel; and a 
Welsh writer, with all his partiality for his own country, has the 
honesty to assign to the Irish the superiority on the harp. 

That the clergy of Ireland, in the sixth century, differed in 
some points of discipline from the clergy of the neighboring 
The clergy of ire- churches, is plain from the disputes respecting the 
lancI - time of Easter and the form of the tonsure : that 

they agreed in all points of doctrine is equally evident from the 
history of these very disputes, from the cordial reception of the 
Irish ecclesiastics in Gaul and Italy, and from the easy amalga- 
mation of their rules with those of the continental monks. 

The proximity of Ireland to England, and the inferiority of the 
natives in the art of war, had suggested the idea of conquest to 



1171 A. D.] HENRY THE SECOND. 135 

both William the Conqueror and the first Henry. Reasong to jus . 
The task which they had abandoned was seriously tif y the invasion, 
taken up by Henry the Second. To justify the invasion of a free 
and unoffending people, bis ambition had discovered that the civil- 
ization of their manners and the reform of their clergy were bene- 
fits which the Irish ought cheerfully to purchase with the loss of 
their independence. Within a few months after his coronation, 
John of Salisbury, a learned monk, and afterward bishop of 
Chartres, was despatched to solicit the approbation of Pope Adrian. 
The envoy was charged to assure his holiness that Henry's prin- 
cipal object was to provide instruction for an ignorant people, to 
extirpate vice from the Lord's vineyard, and to extend to Ireland 
the annual payment of Peter-pence ; but, that as every Christian 
island was the property of the Holy See, he did not presume to 
make the attempt without the advice and consent of the successor 
of St. Peter. The pontiff, who must have smiled The pontiff as- 
at the hypocrisy of this address, praised in his re- request, 
ply the piety of his dutiful son ; accepted and asserted the right 
of sovereignty which had been so liberally admitted ; expressed 
the satisfaction with which he assented to the king's request ; and 
exhorted him to bear always in mind the conditions on which that 
assent had been grounded. At the following Michaelmas, a great 
council was held to deliberate on the enterprise ; but a strong op- 
position was made by the empress-mother and the barons ; other 
projects offered themselves to Henry's ambition, and the papal 
letter was consigned to oblivion in the archives of the castle of 
Winchester. 

Fourteen years after this singular negotiation, a few Welsh ad- 
venturers landed in Ireland, at the solicitation of one of the native 
princes. Dermot, king of Lcinster, had several 

, „ . , ip -rv -i ,i Dermot: O'Ruarc. 

years before carried away by force Dervorgil, the 
wife of O'Ruarc, prince of Breffny or Leitrim. The husband, to 
avenge his disgrace, claimed the assistance of Turlogh O'Connor, 
monarch of Ireland ; and from this period Dermot and O'Ruarc 
adhered to opposite interests in all the disputes which agitated 
the island. Dermot was, in 1167, driven out of Ireland. The 
exile, abandoned by his countrymen, solicited the assistance of 
strangers. Passing through England to Aquitaine, he did ho- 
mage for his dominions to Henry, and obtained permission tc 



136 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1171. 



enlist adventurers in his service. His offers were accepted by 
Strongbow, earl of Pembroke, and by two brothers, Robert Fitz- 
Stephen and Maurice Fitz-Gerald. Relying on their promises, 
Derinot returned to Ireland, and found, during the winter months, 
a secure asylum in the monastery of Ferns. In the beginning of 
the summer of 1169, Fitz-Stephen landed in Bannock Bay, accom- 

Tbe landing of panied or followed by one hundred and forty 
fh^SVtne knights, sixty coats of mail, and three hundred 
adventurers. archers. Dermot joined them with a body of 

natives, and by the reduction of Wexford, struck dismay into 
the hearts of his enemies. He then led his forces with success 
against Donald, the prince of Ossory. The ambition of Dermot 
now aspired to the sovereignty of the island. "With this view he 
solicited reinforcements from England, and reminded Strongbow 
of his engagements. Reinforcements were sent, and Strongbow 
soon followed, with twelve hundred archers and knights. At the 
third assault Waterford was taken. Dermot eagerly marched 
against Dublin. It was carried by storm, and the victor testified 
by numerous donations his gratitude for the services of his auxili- 
aries. But while he was meditating new conquests, he was 
arrested by death ; and Strongbow, who had previously married 
his daughter Eva, and had been appointed his successor, imme- 
diately assumed the royal authority. The most powerful efforts 
were now made to expel the strangers from Dublin. The former 
inhabitants, who had escaped under Asculf the Ostman, attempted, 
with the aid of sixty Norwegian vessels, to regain the city. They 
were scarcely repulsed, when Roderic, king of Connaught, sat 
down before it. In the ninth week of the siege he was surprised 
by a sally from the garrison, and the multitude of his followers 
was completely dispersed. Lastly, O'Ruarc, with the natives of 
Meath, undertook to avenge the cause of his country. He lost 
his son and the bravest of his associates. 

When the Welsh adventurers first sailed to the aid of Dermot, 
Henry had viewed the enterprise with contempt; their subsequent 

Henry's conduct success awakened his jealousy. As soon as he 
enterprise. heard of the capture of Waterford, he forbade by 

proclamation any of his subjects to cross over to Ireland, and 
commanded all who had already joined in the invasion to return, 
under the penalty of forfeiture. Strongbow was alarmed, and 



1172 A. D.] HENRY THE SECOND. 137 

despatched Raymond to lay his conquests at the feet of his sove- 
reign. The messenger was unable to procure an answer. Henry 
of Mountmaurice followed, and was equally unsuccessful. The 
earl, convinced of his danger, now adopted the advice of his 
friends, and, repairing to England, waited on Henry, at Newn- 
ham, in Gloucestershire. At first he was ignominiously refused 
an audience ; and to recover the royal favor, renewed his homage 
and fealty, surrendered to Henry the city of Dublin, the surround- 
ing localities, and the castles and harbors in his possession, and 
consented to hold the remainder of his lands in Ireland as tenant 
in chief of the English crown. With this the king was satisfied ; 
the acquisitions of the adventurers had been transferred to him- 
self; and he permitted Strongbow to accompany him to Milford 
Haven, where he embarked with five hundred knights, their 
esquires, and a numerous body of archers, on board a fleet of four 
hundred transports. He landed at Waterford, received during a 
hasty progress the homage of the neighboring princes, and directed 
his march toward Dublin. O'Connor only made a nominal sub- 
mission, and the princes of Ulster obstinately preserved their 
independence : they would neither visit the king nor own his 
authority. 

When, in the preceding year, Dermot let loose his foreign 
auxiliaries against his countrymen, the Irish bishops, surprised 
at their unexampled success, had assembled at Ar- Tbe conduct of 
magh, and looking on the strangers as the minis- the Irish Ws1io p s - 
ters of the divine wrath, had enacted that every slave who had 
been imported from England, should be immediately restored to 
his freedom. After the arrival of Henry, they held another 
synod at Cashel, under the presidency of the papal legate, the 
bishop of Lismore; signed a formal recognition of the king's 
sovereignty, and framed several canons for the reform of their 
Church. Henry was recalled to England, in the spring of 1172, 
by affairs of great urgency ; and left the island without having 
added an inch of territory to the acquisitions of the original ad- 
venturers. At his departure the supreme command had been 
given by him to Hugh de Lacy, with the county of Meath for 
his fee ; but during the war which afterward ensued between the 
king and his sons, De Lacy was summoned to the assistance of 
the father, and the government of the English conquests reverted 
1 12* 



138 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1172. 



to Strongbow, who possessed neither the authority to check the 
rapacity of his followers, nor the power to overawe the hostility 

Henry has re- of the natives. In this state of things, Henry had 
Adrian's lette^T recourse to the letter which he had formerly pro- 
*>• im - cured from Pope Adrian. It had been forgotten 

during almost twenty years ; now it was drawn from obscurity, 
and read with much solemnity to a synod of Irish bishops. In 
the following year, a treaty took place between Henry and Rode- 
rick O'Connor, by which the former was acknowledged king of 
Ireland, and the latter became " king under the English crown." 
The sovereignty of Henry was not, however, acknowledged by 
many of the Irish chieftains, and the struggle continued. Henry 
appointed his son John "lord of Ireland," but he, after an inglo- 
rious rule of nine months, was recalled by his father. De Courcy, 
who succeeded him, by repeated and laborious expeditions, pre- 
served, if he did not extend, the English conquests ; which com- 
prised the maritime districts of Down, Dublin, "Wexford, Water- 
ford, and Cork, connected with each other by a long chain of 
forts. This was the period when the natives, had they united in 
the cause of their country, might in all probability have expelled 
the invaders. But they wasted their strength in domestic feuds. 
It is now time to revert to the English history of Henry. In 
the spring of 1172, he went to France, as he had received inti- 

irenry goes to niation that his solemn oath of being innocent of 
oatw wslnno 11 - plotting the death of Becket, would prevent the 
der Ce of Vh? arch- threatened spiritual censures from being carried 
bishop, into execution ; and, in the cathedral of Avranches, 

before the legates, bishops, barons, and people, with his hand 
placed on the book of the Gospels, he solemnly swore that he 
was innocent, both in word and deed, of the murder of the arch- 
bishop. This oath was taken spontaneously; but, as he could 
not deny that he had at least given occasion, by passionate ex- 
pressions, to the project of the assassins, he consented to maintain 
during twelve months two hundred knights for the defence of the 
Holy Land, to serve in person, if the pope recjuired it, for three 
years against the infidels, either in Palestine or Spain ; to restore 
the lands and possessions belonging to the friends of the arch- 
bishop ; to allow appeals, on taking reasonable security, from 
persons whom he suspected ; and to abolish the customs hostile 



1172 A. D.] 



HENRY THE SECOND. 



139 



to the liberties of the clergy, if any such customs had been in- 
troduced since his accession. Immediately after the oath, the 
king was solemnly absolved from all censures by the legates. 
The young king took the same oath, with the exception of those 
articles which regarded his father personally. 

Henry next proceeded to arrange some matters connected with 
the rights of the clergy, and succeeded in obtaining peace on that 
subject. His tranquillity, however, was soon interrupted by 
quarrels originating in his own family. For his The quarrelg in 
children, in their more early years, he had dis- Henry's family, 
played an affection bordering on excess; but, as they grew up, 
the indulgent parent was gradually changed into a jealous and 
despotic sovereign. Eleanor had borne him four sons, to each of 
whom his extensive dominions offered an ample inheritance. 
Henry, the eldest, had already been crowned king of England ; 
the duchies of Aquitaine and Bretagne were settled on Richard 
and Geoffrey; and John, the youngest, though the courtiers 
called him " lackland" and " sansterre," was destined by his 
father to succeed to the lordship of Ireland. For reasons with 
which we are unacquainted, Henry had not permitted the consort 
of his eldest son to be crowned with her husband ; and the omis- 
sion was resented by Louis, as a marked and unpardonable insult 
both to himself and his daughter. To appease that monarch the 
ceremony was now repeated. Margaret was anointed and crowned 
together with Henry ; and, soon afterward, the young king and 
queen paid a visit to her father at Paris. On their return, they 
required the immediate possession of England or Normandy. 
The demand was refused, and Henry's sons left him, accompanied 
by their mother. She was taken prisoner, and kept in close con- 
finement, almost without intermission, till the king's death. At 
the same time, Henry had sent the archbishop of Rouen and the 
bishop of Lisieux to Paris, with instructions to solicit the return 
of his sons, and an offer to make the king of France umpire be- 
tween him and them. His offer was refused ; and the plans of 
the three princes soon began to be developed. Louis and the 
French barons, who had been summoned for the occasion, bound 
fliemselves by oath to aid with all their power the young Henry, 
in his attempt to obtain possession of England ; while he, on his 
part, solemnly engaged never to make peace with his father with- 



140 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1174 



out the consent of the king and the nobility of France. Philip, 
earl of Flanders, who was present, and William, king of Scotland, 
who had sent his ambassadors, entered into the league. Henry 
collected an army of twenty thousand troops, hired from the con- 
tinent, and solicited Alexander, in the most earnest manner, to 
shield with the papal authority the kingdom of England, " the 
fief of the Holy See, and the patrimony of St. Peter/' from the 
unnatural attempts of his deluded children. 

In the month of June, 1173, the confederates commenced 
their operations on the frontiers of Picardy, of the Vexin, and 
of Bretagne. 

Henry, in Normandy, endeavored to defend that duchy ; and 
his absence encouraged revolt in England. The Scots also poured 
down from the north, and the English crown became seriously en- 
dangered. Henry returned to England in 1174. His mind was 
deeply affected by the rebellion of his children, 

Henry returns r J t -> / 

to England, and the perfidy of his barons, and the general combi- 

makes a pilgrimage . n ■, . , , . . . , . 

to the tomb of nation ot the neighboring princes against him. 
Such things, he had persuaded himself, were not 
in the ordinary course of nature; they could be no other than 
the effects of the divine wrath, which he had enkindled by his 
persecution of Archbishop Becket. The name of that prelate 
had been, in the preceding year, enrolled by the pope in the 
catalogue of the saints; and every part of Europe resounded 
with the report of miracles wrought at his shrine. Henry, to ex- 
piate his offence, secretly determined to make a pilgrimage to the 
tomb of the martyr. On the morning of the second day from 
his leaving Normandy, he landed at Southampton ; and, without 
waiting to repose himself from his fatigue, began his journey 
toward Canterbury; rode all night, with no other refreshment 
than bread and water, and at the dawn of the morning descried 
at a distance the towers of Christ-church. Instantly dismount- 
ing from his horse, he put on the garb of a penitent, and walked 
barefoot toward the city. As he passed through the gateway, 
the spectators observed that each footstep was marked with blood. 
He entered the cathedral, descended into the crypt, and threw 
himself at the foot of the tomb ; while the bishop of London 
ascended the pulpit, and addressed the spectators. The prelate 
conjured them to believe the assertions of a prince who thus 



1175 A. D.] HENRY THE SECOND. 141 



solemnly appealed to Heaven in proof of his innocence. After 
receiving castigation from the bishops and monks, Henry returned 
to the crypt, spent the night in prayer, and attended at the mass 
of the following morning. Then with a cheerful heart he re- 
mounted his horse, and rode to London ; but the want of nourish- 
ment, joined to fatigue of mind and body, threw him into a fever, 
which confined him for a short time to his chamber. 

In a few days, he received news of the defeat of the Scots, 
and the capture of their king. Henry eagerly communicated the 
important tidings to his courtiers ; and at the same time exult- 
ingly remarked that this glorious event had occurred on the very 
morning on which he rose, repentant and reconciled, from the 
shrine of St. Thomas. 

Henry soon returned to Normandy, as peace was restored in 
England. A treaty was agreed upon, and each of the young 
princes received possession of some fortresses, Treaty between 
consenting to do homage to their father. Henry sons, 
refused to assent to the release of William, king of Scots, on 
any other terms than an acknowledgment that the crown of Scot- 
land was held as a fief of the crown of England. The unfortu- 
nate monarch was confined in the strong castle of Falaise ; but, 
that he might have the aid of his council, a deputation of Scot- 
tish prelates and barons was permitted to assemble and deliberate 
in the small town of Valognes. By their advice, and with their 
consent, "William submitted to kneel to Henry. 

Triumphant over his enemies, and at peace with his children, 
Henry was at last permitted to enjoy a few years of repose. He 
did not, however, waste his time in idleness, but Henry triumph- 

, , , . . . ant over his ene- 

de voted his attention to two very important ob- mies. 
jects, the investigation of the conduct of his officers, and the re- 
form of the internal polity of his dominions. He spent much of 
his time in endeavoring to improve the constitutions of the various 
courts of justice, and established the custom of the judges going 
on a circuit twice each year. We have not space for the interest- 
ing details which Dr. Lingard introduces into this part of his 
work on the subject of the different legal modes of trial. The 
advanced student of history would do well to read with care, in 
the larger work, this important passage. 

The eyes of all the European nations were directed at this 



142 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1187. 



period to the disastrous condition of the Christians in Palestine. 

The throne of je- The throne of Jerusalem, which the Crusaders 
theFourthSd^r- uac * raised and supported at the expense of so 
ladin. much blood and treasure, was tottering on its basis, 

and the king, Baldwin IV., who was a minor, was no match for 
the talents and power of Saladin, who, by successive conquests, 
annually contracted the limits of the strangers, and threatened 
to eradicate them in a few years from the soil of Asia. Henry, 
in the presence of the papal legates, had solemnly sworn to visit 
the Holy Land. Whether he intended to perform this vow is 
uncertain ; but the danger of exposing his dominions to the in- 
roads of a powerful neighbor, furnished him with a decent plea 
for deferring its execution. Louis of France, however, made the 
proposal to accompany him in the expedition, but his death de- 
feated this plan. Envoys from the East came to request that 
Henry would proceed to the Holy Land; but, to their disap- 
pointment, the king, in lieu of his personal services, only pro- 
mised a subsidy of fifty thousand marks. 

But, on the twenty -ninth of September, 1187, ninety-six years 
after its reduction by the first crusaders, Jerusalem was again sur- 
The fail of Je- rendered into the hands of the Mussulmans. The 
rusaiem. news of this mournful event plunged the Christian 

world into the deepest consternation. The aged pontiff died of a 
broken heart; William, king of Sicily, wore sackcloth for four 
days, and vowed to take the cross ; as also did Henry of England 
and Philip of France. Henry's vow was prevented from being 
performed by fresh quarrels with his sons, arising from his inter- 
fering in some disputes of theirs, respecting the right of one to 
the homage of another. Prince Henry and Prince Geoffrey died 
about this time, the former being very penitent for having fought 
against his father. 

Adelais, the daughter of Louis of France, had been betrothed 
to Richard, and intrusted to the care of his father. Henry kept 

Adeiaia, daugh- ner * n one 0I " n ^ s ca stles, and jealously excluded 
ter of Louis. ^jg son f rom h er company. Philip demanded 

Adelais for her husband ; to his demand the pope added the 

threat of excommunication ; but the wily monarch was able to 

defeat both the demands of the one and the threats of the other, 

by deceitful promises and evasive proposals. Philip and Richard 



1188 A. D.] HENRY THE SECOND. 14; 



became more intimate than ever, and the latter did homage to the 
former for the French dominions of his father. Hostilities soon 
recommenced, and Richard, with most of the continental barons, 
joined the French king. Henry, compelled to flee from his ene- 
mies, successively abandoned Mans, his birthplace, the castle of 
Ambois, and the strong city of Tours. He soon submitted to all 
the demands of his enemies ; to pay a sum of twenty thousand 
marks as an indemnity to Philip ; to permit his vassals to do ho- 
mage to Richard ; and to place Adelais in the hands of one out 
of three persons then named, who, at the return of Philip and 
Richard from the crusade, should deliver her to one or other of 
these princes. He had stipulated that a list should be given to 
him of the barons who had joined the French king, a curiosity 
that planted a dagger in his breast; for the first name which 
caught his eye was that of his favorite son John. He read no 
further; but, returning the paper, departed for Chinon with a 
broken heart. At first he sank into a deep melancholy ; this was 
followed by a raging fever, in the paroxysms of The sickncss and 
which he called down the vengeance of heaven on dcath of IIem- y- 
the ingratitude of his children. Geoffrey, the chancellor, attended 
his sick bed. Henry thanked him for his affection, gave him, 
with his blessing, the ring from his own finger, and expressed a 
wish that he might be promoted to the archbishopric of York, or 
the bishopric of Winchester. On the seventh day, all hope of 
his recovery vanished ; and at his request he was carried into the 
church, and received at the foot of the altar the last consolations 
of religion. The moment he expired, the bishops and barons de- 
parted, while the other attendants stripped the corpse, and carried 
off every thing that was valuable. He was buried, with little 
pomp, in the choir of the convent of Fontevraud, in the presence 
of his son Richard, and of a few knights and prelates. 

By his queen Eleanor, Henry had five sons, of whom only two, 
Richard and John, survived their father. His daughters were 
Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan. * 

The stature of Henry was moderate, his countenance majestic, 
and his complexion florid ; but his person was disfigured by an 
unseemly protuberance of the abdomen, which he sought to con- 
tract by the united aid of exercise and sobriety. Few persons 
have equalled him in abstemiousness, none perhaps in activity. 



144 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1189. 



The character of He was perpetually in motion, on foot or on horse- 
Henry, back. Every moment which could be spared 
from more important concerns he devoted to hunting ; but no fa- 
tigue could subdue his restlessness ; after the chase he would 
snatch a hasty repast, and then rising from the table, in spite of 
the murmurs of his attendants, keep them walking or standing 
till bedtime. During his education in the castle of Gloucester, 
he had acquired a knowledge of letters ; and after his accession 
delighted in the conversation of the learned. Such was the power 
of his memory, that he is said to have retained whatever he had 
heard or read, and to have recognised at the first glance every 
person whom he had previously seen. He was eloquent, affable, 
facetious ; uniting with the dignity of the prince the manners of 
the gentleman; but under this fascinating outside, he concealed a 
heart that could descend to the basest artifices, and sport with its 
own honor and veracity. No one would believe his assertions or 
trust his promises ; yet he justified this habit of duplicity by the 
maxim that it is better to repent of words than of facts, to be 
guilty of falsehood than to fail in a favorite pursuit. Though 
possessed of ample dominions, and desirous of extending them, 
he never obtained the laurels of a conqueror. His ambition was 
checked by his caution. Even in the full tide of prosperity, he 
would stop to calculate the chances against him, and frequently 
plunged himself into real, to avoid imaginary evils. Hence, the 
characteristic feature of his policy was delay ; a hasty decision 
could not be recalled ; but he persuaded himself that procrasti- 
nation would allow him to improve every advantage which acci- 
dent might offer. In his own dominions, he wished, says a con- 
temporary, to concentrate all power within his own person. He 
was jealous of every species of authority which did not emanate 
from himself, and which was not subservient to his will. His 
pride delighted in confounding the most haughty of his nobles, 
and depressing the most powerful families. He abridged their 
rights, divided their possessions, and married their heiresses to 
men of inferior rank. He was careful that his favorites should 
owe every thing to himself, and gloried in the parade of their 
power and opulence, because they were of his own creation. But 
if he was a bountiful master, he was a most vindictive enemy. 
His temper could not brook contradiction. Whoever hesitated tc 



1189 A. D.] RICHARD THE FIRST. 145 



obey his will, or presumed to thwart his desire, was marked out 
for his victim, and was pursued with the most unrelenting ven- 
geance. His passion was said to be the raving of a madman, the 
fury of a savage beast. We are told, that in its paroxysms his 
eyes were spotted with blood, his countenance seemed of flame, 
his tongue poured a torrent of abuse and imprecation, and his 
hands were employed to inflict vengeance on whatever came 
within his reach ; and that on one occasion, when Humet, a fa- 
vorite minister, had ventured to offer a plea in justification of the 
king of Scots, Henry, in a burst of passion, called Humet a 
traitor, threw down his cap, ungirt his sword, tore off his clothes, 
pulled the silk coverlet from his couch, and, unable to do more 
mischief, sate down, and gnawed the straw on the floor. Hence, 
the reader will perceive that pride and passion, caution and du- 
plicity, formed the distinguishing traits in his character. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

gtrintrfr tin .first. 

CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. 

Clement III. 
Celestin III. 
Innocent III. 



Scotland. 
William. 

Germany. 
Frederic I. 
Henry VI. 
Philip. 



France. 
Philip Augustus. 

Spain. 
Alphonso IX. 



The succession of Richard — Massacre of the Jews — Crusade — Conquest of the 
Island of Cyprus — His Exploits in Palestine — His Return and Captivity- 
Troubles in England— The King is ransomed — His Death. — From A. D. 11S9 
to 1199. 

The reader is already acquainted with the character of Richard, 
the eldest of the surviving sons of the late king. It was remarked 
that when he first saw the corpse of his father, he burst into tears; 
and this token of natural affection was hailed by 
the spectators as a proof of remorse. His subse- Eichard. 

13 



146 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1189. 

quent conduct contributed more to turn the tide of public opinion 
in his favor. lie dismissed his own councillors, and called to his 
service those who remained faithful to his father. 

To take formal possession of his transmarine dominions, and to 
settle the existing differences between the crowns of France and 
England, detained Richard a few weeks on the continent. But 
he immediately ordered his mother Eleanor to be liberated from 
confinement, and invested her with the high dignity of regent. 
She ordered all freemen to take the oath of allegiance to Richard. 
At her invitation, the barons and prelates assembled at Winches- 
ter to receive their new sovereign on his arrival from Normandy, 
and on the third day of September, 1189, his coronation took 
place. 

The commencement of Richard's reign was marked by several 

cruelties on the part of the people toward the Jews, who were 

Cruelties eser- unpopular on account of their charg-ino; a hie;h rate 

cised toward the . 

jews. of interest on debts. Several Jews were murdered 

in the streets of London, and at York many of them committed 
suicide rather than fall into the hands of the populace. During 
these massacres, Richard, who had vowed to take the cross, was 
Richard prepares in France, preparing for the crusade, to support 
for the crusade. ^q expense of which he had levied heavy taxes in 
England. The two kings had reciprocally bound themselves to 
commence their pilgrimage at the feast of Easter ; on account of 
the premature death of the French epieen, the time was deferred 
till midsummer. They met in the plains of Vezelai ; and a gal- 
lant army of more than one hundred thousand men, in the double 
character of warriors and pilgrims, marched under their banners. 
At Lyons they separated, Philip taking the road to Genoa, Richard 
that to Marseilles ; but both armaments soon joined again in the 
port of Messina, in Sicily. In this island the reigning king was 
called Tancred, a fortunate adventurer, who had seized the crown 
at the death of William, the late sovereign. He would gladly 
have declined the honor of receiving these powerful, and therefore 
dangerous guests. As he had never indeed incurred, he had no 
reason to fear, the resentment of Philip ; but he had detained the 
dower of Joan, the sister of Richard and relict of William, and 
had refused to pay the legacies which that prince had left to 
Henry, Richard's father. All these were now imperiously de- 



1190 A. D.] KICHARD THE FIRST. 147 

niandcd, and a violent contest took place, which was, after some 
fighting, terminated by a treaty between Tancred and Richard. 

Richard and Philip, though jealous of each other, contrived to 
mask their real feelings, and spent the winter in apparent amity. 
But soon a subject of dissension arose. Richard Dissension be- 
had offered his hand to Berengaria, the daughter Philip. 
of Sancho, king of Navarre ; and his mother Eleanor had arrived 
with the princess at Naples. Philip immediately brought forward 
the claim of his sister Adelais, who had for so many years been 
espoused to the king of England ; but Richard declared that he 
would never marry her ; and at length it was agreed that he 
should be released, on certain conditions, from his contract with 
the French princess. The king of France soon sailed for Acre. 
Richard accompanied him a few miles ; then turning to Reggio, 
took on board Eleanor and Berengaria, and conducted them to 
Messina. 

At length the king bade adieu to Sicily, with a fleet of fifty- 
three galleys, and one hundred and fifty other ships. Eleanor 
had returned to England ; the queen of Sicily and the princess 
of Arragon accompanied the expedition. Nine months had 
already elapsed since Richard commenced his journey, and yet, 
though he was but a few days' sail from the Holy Land, the im- 
petuosity of his character led him to scmander away two more 
months in an enterprise against the king of Cypiais, for injuries 
done to some crusaders who had been wrecked. 

The siege of Acre had now lasted the greater part of two years ; 
and both the attack and defence had been conducted with the 
most obstinate bravery. The entrance of the port 
was watched by the galleys of Pisa; while the 
land army encamped round the town, in a semicircle, from sea to 
sea. But the besiegers were themselves besieged ; and from the 
neighboring mountains Saladin, with an immense army, watched 
all their motions. The arrival of Philip, soon after his departure 
from Sicily, had diffused new vigor through the army. Military 
engines had been erected; the walls were battered and under- 
mined ; breaches were made ; and nothing was wanting for the 
assault but the presence of Richard, with whom the king of 
France had engaged to share the danger and glory of the attempt. 

Richard having overcome the king of Cyprus, joined the cru- 



148 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1191. 



saders, and was received by theni with enthusiastic expressions of 
joy. He immediately distributed presents with his accustomed 

Kichard joins the prodigality; took into his service all who offered 
surrendered. themselves, and ordered his battering engines to 

be erected against the walls. Though he was soon reduced to an 
extreme degree of weakness by an intermittent fever, his impa- 
tience led him to superintend the operations of the army. At 
length it was agreed that Acre should be surrendered to the 
Christians, and that the Turks, as a ransom for their lives, should 
restore the holy cross, and set at liberty one thousand five hundred 
captives. For the performance of these conditions, a term of forty 
days was assigned, and some thousands of hostages were detained 
in the fortress. The crusaders immediately took possession of the 
place, and Saladin removed his camp to a distance. 

This conquest was fondly received by the nations of Christen- 
dom as a prelude to the delivery of Jerusalem ; but the public 

The return of J°y was S00D damped by the news that the king 
the king of France. f France intended to withdraw from the army. 
It was in vain that Richard, his own officers, and all the confede- 
rate chiefs urged him to change his resolution. He was equally 
unmoved by their entreaties or their reproofs ; and, having sworn 
not to invade the territories of the king of England, he departed 
from Acre amid the groans and imprecations of the spectators. 

The term fixed by the capitulation of Acre had nearly expired, 
and frequent messages were exchanged between Saladin and 
Richard. The sultan refused, under different pretexts, to exe^ 
cute the treaty, and the king declared that the hostages should 
pay the forfeit of his perfidy with their lives. The hostages were 

Massacre of the ^ to tne summit of a hill, in sight of the Saracen 
hostages. camp ) the crusaders assembled in crowds to wit- 

ness so glorious a spectacle ; and at a signal given, two thousand 
seven hundred infidels fell under the swords of their butchers. 
At the same hour, and for the same cause, an almost equal num- 
ber, the portion which had fallen to the lot of the king of France, 
were massacred on the walls of Acre by the troops under the 
duke of Burgundy. 

After this bloody deed, which, inhuman as it was, seems not 
to have been contemplated with horror by either the Christians 
()]• Mohammedans of the age, Richard conducted his army, reduced 



1191 A. D.] RICHARD THE FIRST. 149 



to thirty thousand men, from Acre to Jaffa. On his march he was 
harassed by Saladin, who, however, was soon afterward defeated 
with great loss, and ceased for a time to attack the Christian 
army. 

To recover from the infidels the sacred spot in which the body 
of Christ had been buried, was the professed object of the cru- 
saders; and to keep it fresh in their memory, these The object of the 
words, " The holy sepulchre," were proclaimed thrice c ™saders. 
every evening by the voice of a herald throughout the camp. 
Richard concealed his sentiments from his associates ; but he had 
now learned to doubt of the success of the enterprise, and in his 
letters to Europe most earnestly solicited supplies of both men 
and money. Still, with these impressions on his mind, he did 
not hesitate to lead the army toward the city. He even reached 
Ramla and Bethania, places within a short distance of Jerusalem ; 
but the weather became rainy and tempestuous, a dearth of pro- 
visions was felt, sickness spread itself through the ranks, and 
many in despair abandoned the expedition. It was evident that 
he must either return to Jaffa, or instantly make the hopeless at- 
tempt of carrying by storm a place strongly fortified, and defended 
by an army more numerous than his own. The king for once 
listened to the suggestions of prudence, and bent his march back 
to the coast. The war had continued for some time longer with 
varying success, and at length an armistice was concluded for 
three years. Saladin insisted on the destruction of Ascalon, 
and in return granted to the pilgrims free access to the holy 
sepulchre. 

Thus terminated this crusade. If Jerusalem could have been 
won by personal strength and bravery, it might have been won 
by Richard. His exploits, so superior to those of The termination 
his fellows, threw a splendor around him which of the crusade, 
endeared him to the Christians, and extorted the admiration of 
the infidels. He left Palestine disguised as a pilgrim, for he had 
fears of assassination. On his journey home he was discovered, 
seized, and imprisoned by the duke of Austria, whom he had in- 
sulted at Acre. 

It is now time to return to England, which during the absence 
of the monarch had been impoverished by the rapacity of his 
minister, William de Longchamp, and harassed by the ambition 

13* 



150 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1193. 



of his brother John. John had calculated on the event of the 
The condition of king's death, and had determined to seize the 
rh 1 e gla absence irin f sceptre. There was indeed a child who had a 
Richard. better right to the succession, Arthur, the son of 

his elder brother, Geoffrey ; but as the claim of the nearest heir 
had been overlooked on other occasions, the claim of Arthur might 
be overlooked at the death of Richard. Richard, however, favored 
the interests of his nephew : and in his treaty with Tancred, king 
of Sicily, and his letters to the pope, declared the young prince the 
apparent heir to the throne. 

When, in 1193, the news arrived of Richard's departure from 
Acre, the people, by whom, with all his vices, he was beloved on 
account of his valor, were eager to behold the champion of the 
cross ; but week after week the public expectation was alternately 
roused and disappointed. Rumors the most sinister and impro- 
bable had begun to prevail, when the secret of his detention was 
revealed by the copy of a letter to the king of France from Henry 
Richard fails in- the Sixth, the emperor of Germany. Richard had 
em?e e ror a if 0f G t e h r e - been shipwrecked on the coast of Istria, and taken 
man y- prisoner by Leopold, duke of Austria, from whom 

Henry purchased the royal captive for the sum of sixty thousand 
pounds. John, the king's brother, repaired in haste to Paris, 
surrendered to Philip some portions of Normandy, did him ho- 
mage for the rest of Richard's continental possessions, and return- 
ing to England, assembled an army to contend for the crown, but 
was unsuccessful. 

Longchamp, the chancellor, who was exiled by John, was the 
first to discover the prison of Richard, and after some time suc- 
ceeded in getting the emperor to enter into terms respecting the 
release of the English monarch. The prospect of liberty revived 
the spirits of Richard, who despatched Longchamp to England, 
with a letter to the council of regency. By their orders, a tax 
of twenty shillings was imposed on every knight's fee ; the plate 
of the churches was sold or redeemed ; one-fourth of every man's 
income was extorted from the clergy and laity ; and all were re- 
quired to make the king such presents as might deserve his gra- 
The king is ran- titude. Part of the stipulated ransom was paid, 

somed, and returns . . „ . . , -iit-iti 

to England. security given tor the remainder, and the Ingush 

king returned to his dominions. 



ll f J9A.D.J RICHARD THE FIRST. 151 

Though Richard now breathed the air of liberty, his heart 
could not be at ease till he had chastised the perfidy of the 
French monarch, for his having favored John. Two short 
months were all that he could spare to his English subjects, and 
these were employed, not in repairing the evils Richard's first 

111*1 ,,.,.. , measures on his 

caused by his absence, but in devising means to return, 
extort more money from those who had been already impoverished 
by the amount of his ransom. He next took steps to cause John 
to be outlawed. That prince, whose pusillanimity was equal to 
his ambition, implored on his knees, on Richard's arrival in Nor- 
mandy, the forgiveness of a sovereign whom he had so cruelly 
offended. But he had secured a powerful intercessor in the queen- 
mother, at whose request Richard received him into favor, though 
he sternly refused to restore to him either his lands or his castles. 

War raged for some time between Richard and Philip, without 
any important results, the people of England being very much 
discontented at the taxation required for the contest. 

It was Richard's fate to perish in an ignoble quarrel with one 
of his barons. A treasure had been discovered on the estate of 
Vidomar, viscount of Limoges, and though a part had been 
offered to satisfy the king, he demanded the whole. On the 
refusal of Vidomar, Richard besieged his castle of Chaluz, and 
contemptuously rejected the conditional offer of surrender made 
by the garrison. It chanced, as he rode round the Richard wounded 

t, • •,1-nrii r> i • at tne castle of 

walls m company with Marchadee, one of his Chaiuz. 
generals, that an arrow wounded him in the left shoulder. The 
signal for assault was immediately given ; the castle was taken by 
storm ; and, with the exception of Gourdon, the archer who had 
wounded the king, the captives were ordered to be hanged as 
robbers who had detained the property of their sovereign. An 
unskilful surgeon now extracted the head of the arrow, and symp- 
toms of mortification soon warned the king of his approaching 
dissolution. He sent for his confessor, received the sacraments 
with sentiments of compunction, and, ordering Gourdon into his 
presence, gave him his liberty, with one hundred shillings, to 
take him home. But Marchadee secretly detained the unhappy 
youth, and ordered him to be flayed alive. Ri- The death of 
chard expired in the year 1199, in the forty- Richard. 
second year of his age. His body was buried at Fontcvraud, at 



152 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1190. 

the feet of his father; his lion-heart (the epithet had formerly 
nattered him) he bequeathed to the citizens of Rouen, in grati- 
tude for their loyalty and attachment. 

To a degree of muscular strength which falls to the lot of few, 
Richard added a mind incapable of fear. Hence, in the ancient 
annalists, he towers as a warrior above all his contemporaries. 
Nor was this pre-eminence conceded to him by the Christians 
alone. Even a century after his death, his name was employed 
The character of ^J _ tae Saracen cavalier to chide his horse, and 
Richard. ^y the Saracen mother to terrify her children. 

But when we have given him the praise of valor, his panegyric 
is finished. His laurels were steeped in blood, and his victories 
purchased with the impoverishment of his people. Of the mean- 
ness to which he could stoop to procure money, and the injustices 
into which he was hurried by the impetuosity of his passions, the 
reader has found numerous instances in the preceding pages. 
The only benefits which the nation received, in return for the im- 
mense sums which it had furnished to the king, in his expedition 
to Palestine, for his ransom from captivity, and in support of his 
wars in France, were two legislative charters. By one of these, 
he established uniformity of weights and measures throughout 
the realm ; by the other, he mitigated the severity of the law of 
wrecks. Formerly it had been held that, in cases of shipwreck, 
unless the vessel were repaired by the survivors within a given 
time, it became, with the cargo, the property of the crown, or of 
the lord of the manor, having right of wreck. The injustice of 
this custom was mitigated by Henry I., who exempted from for- 
feiture every ship from which a single mariner or passenger had 
escaped alive ; but after his death, under the pretence that the 
consent of the baronage had not been obtained, the ancient claim 
was revived and exercised, till Henry II. enacted, that if even a 
beast escaped by which the owner could be ascertained, he should 
be allowed three months to claim his property ; and by Richard it 
was added, that if the owner perished, his sons and daughters, 
and in their default, his brothers and sisters, should have a claim 
in preference to the crown. 



1199 A. D.] JOHN. 153 



CHAPTER XV. 

1 o \ % 

Surnamed Sansterre, or Lackland. 
CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. 
Innocent III. 


Scotland. 
William. 
Alexander II. 


France. 
Philip Augustus 


Honorius III. 


Germany. 


Spain. 




Philip. 
Otho IV. 


Alphonso IX. 
Henry I. 



The Accession of John — Captivity and Death of his Nephew — Dispute with 
Pope Innocent — Interdict — The King's submission — Magna Charta — Civil 
War — The offer of the Crown to Louis — The Death of John. — From A. D. 
1199 to 1216. 

Richard had left no legitimate issue. In the strict order of 
hereditary succession, the crown at his death should have de- 
volved to his nephew Arthur, the son of Geoffrey, and duke of 
Bretagne, a boy in the twelfth year of his age. When Richard 
lay on his death-bed, John was present; the claim of Arthur, 
though formerly admitted by the king, was forgotten ; and the 
expiring monarch is said to have declared his The accession of 
brother successor to his throne, and heir to one- John - 
third of his property. John immediately received the homage 
of the knights present, hastened to take possession of Chinon, 
where Richard had deposited his treasures, and proceeded thence 
into Touraine, Maine, and Anjou, the ancient patrimony of the 
Plantagenets. To his disappointment, the natives declared in fa- 
vor of his nephew Arthur, and were supported in that declaration 
by the promise of aid from the king of France. In Normandy, 
however, his friends had secured every voice in his favor ; and at 
Rouen he received the ducal coronet and sword from the hands 
of the archbishop. In Poitou and Aquitaine, he was equally 
fortunate. Respecting the throne of England, a national council 
was held at Northampton, where John's claim was admitted, on 

K 



154 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1199. 



hearing which he repaired to England, and was crowned, with the 
usual solemnity, at Westminster. 

The French kings had long cast a wishful eye toward the pro- 
vinces possessed by the English monarchs in France. If the am- 
bition of Philip shrunk before the superior prowess of Richard, 
it expanded again at the accession of his weak and pusillanimous 
brother. With Arthur in his possession, he determined to fight 
his own battles, while he pretended to support the cause of an 
injured orphan ; and, having conferred the sword of knighthood 

Hostilities be- on the young prince, he traversed Normandy, 

tween Franco and . _ -i i t • • 1 « 

England. burnt Evreux, and placed garrisons in the for- 

tresses of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine. An uninteresting war en- 
sued ; hostilities, at the solicitation of the cardinal Peter of Capua, 
were suspended by armistice, and the armistice terminated in a 
peace, which did little honor to either of the two monarchs. Philip 
sacrificed the interests of Arthur, acknowledged John for the 
rightful heir to his late brother, and compelled the young prince 
to do homage to his uncle for the duchy of Bretagne. 

John had been married about twelve years before this period, 
but, wishing to contract a high alliance, he obtained a divorce. 
He immediately sent ambassadors to Lisbon, to demand the 
princess of Portugal ; but, before he could receive an answer, he 
saw by accident Isabella, daughter to Aymar, count of Angou- 
leme, a young lady who in her early years had been publicly pro- 
mised and privately espoused to Hugh, count of La Marche. The 
king was captivated by her beauty ; the glare of a crown seduced 

John marries tn e ^ tn °^ * ne f^her and his daughter ; and the 
Isabella. unexpected marriage of Isabella and Johu de- 

prived the princess of Portugal of a husband, the count de La 
Marche of a wife. The complaints of the one and the threats of 
the other were equally disregarded. John conducted his bride in 
triumph to England, and was crowned with her at Westminster 
by the primate. The next year the same ceremony was repeated 
at Canterbury, on the festival of Easter. 

De la Marche appealed to the justice of Philip, nor was that 
prince sorry that the tergiversation of John afforded him a pre- 

Hostiiities be- text for humbling so powerful a vassal. The 

tween l'hilip and . . _ . , , , e 

jobn. provisions of the late treaty were instantly tor- 

gotten. Philip received the homage of Arthur, for Bretagne, 



1205 A. D.] JOHN. 155 

Anjou, Maine, and Touraine; the discontented barons hastened 
to join his banner ; fortress after fortress surrendered to the con- 
federates ; and the heart of John sank in despondency, when an 
unexpected event arrested the progress of his enemies, and gave 
hirn a temporary superiority. Eleanor, the queen-mother, was 
lodged in the castle of Mirabeau, in Poitou, and was besieged by 
Arthur. John flew to her relief, and routed the enemy, who 
came out to oppose him. Among the captives was the young- 
duke of Bretagne, whom he placed under a strong guard in the 
castle of Falaise. Arthur soon was transferred to the castle of 
Rouen, and confined in a dungeon of the new tower. Within a 
few months he disappeared. Report ascribed his Arthur taken 
fate to the dagger of his uncle; but the king of g™5 £> d ha ;| 
England could surely have hired an assassin, with- been assassinated. 
out actually dipping his hands in the blood of a nephew. The 
Bretons immediately assembled, and swore to be revenged. The 
bishop of Rennes then hastened to Paris, to accuse the English 
king of the murder ; and Philip gladly summoned him to prove 
his innocence in the presence of the French peers. John, how- 
ever, refused ; and the court pronounced judgment that he should 
forfeit all the lands which he held by homage. 

John, on the disappearance of his nephew, had come over to 
England, was crowned a second time by Archbishop Hubert, at 
Canterbury, and immediately returned to Normandy. The arms 
of Philip succeeded. The Normans submitted to The guccegg of 
that monarch; Anjou, Maine, and Touraine fol- thearmsofi>uuip. 
lowed the example of Normandy; and thus, in 1204, by the 
guilt, or indolence, or bad fortune of John, were these extensive 
and opulent provinces reannexed to the French crown, after a 
separation of two hundred and ninety-two years. John soon 
afterward made an attempt to recover his continental dominions, 
but a negotiation took place, which resulted in an armistice for 
two years. 

John was shortly afterward involved in a dispute with the pope, 
respecting the nomination of bishops. On the death, in 1205, 
of Hubert, archbishop of Canterbury, the junior Jonn , s dispute 
part of the monks assembled clandestinely, in the with the P°P e - 
night, and placed Reginald, their sub-prior, on the archiepiscopal 
throne. To this election they were aware that a strong opposi- 



15G HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1205. 

tion would be made. They had not asked the royal license ; and 
had proceeded without the concurrence of the episcopal body. 
Their only hope of success depended on the approbation of the 
apostolic see. Reginald was accordingly sent to Rome. He was 
quickly followed by a deputation from the bishops of the province 
of Canterbury, with a protest against his election. In England, 
it was the determination of the king to place the bishop of Nor- 
wich on the archiepiscopal throne. He was chosen, and messen- 
gers were despatched to Rome, with the necessary documents in 
support of his right. 

The pope annulled both elections, and caused Cardinal Lang- 
ton, an Englishman, resident at Rome, to be elected. John was 
incensed at this, and avowed his determination that Langton 
should never set his foot in England, in the character of primate. 

The die was now cast, and the quarrel became a trial of 
strength between the power of the king and that of the pontiff. 

The kingdom The latter resolved to proceed step by step, and 
interdict. *" began by laying the whole kingdom under an in- 

terdict. The churches were closed ; no bell was tolled ; no ser- 
vice was solemnly performed; the administration of the sacra- 
ments, except to infants and the dying, was suspended ; and the 
bodies of the dead were interred silently, and in unconsecrated 
ground. This sudden extinction of the forms and aids of re- 
ligion struck the people with horror. John, amid the general 
gloom, wore, an air of serenity, and even of cheerfulness. For 
some time he affected to despise the consequences of the inter- 
dict and the menaces of the pontiff; and his cause derived a 
temporary lustre from some successes over the Scottish king, and 
some victories in Ireland and Wales. 

"When the interdict had lasted a year, the pope fulminated 
against John a bull of excommunication ; but the king main- 
tained so rigorous a watch at the ports, that the sentence could 
not be officially published in England ; and his theologians main- 
tained that, till it were published, it could have no effect. To 

John is said to fortify himself against the pope, he is said to have 
have solicited the so ii c ited the aid of Mohammed al Nassir, who had 

aid of Mohammed ' 

ai Nassir. assumed the usual appellation of the Emir al 

Moumenim, and by his conquests in Spain had threatened to ex- 
tirpate Christianity from the south of Europe. John is said to 



1213 A. D.] JOHN. 157 

have made an offer of the English crown to the emir, and a pro- 
mise to embrace the Mohammedan faith; hut he received no 
assistance from Mohammed. 

Four years at length elapsed, and the king's obstinacy was 
still unsubdued. Innocent had recourse to the last effort of his 
authority. He absolved the vassals of John from The course 
their oaths of fealty, and exhorted all Christian sued *>y innocent, 
princes and barons to unite in dethroning the king. John, how- 
ever, might have laughed at the impotent resentment of Innocent, 
had no monarch been found willing to undertake the execution of 
the sentence. The pope applied to the king of France. Philip 
lent a ready ear to proposals so nattering to his ambition, and a 
numerous army was summoned to meet at the mouth of the 
Seine. 

John crossed to France, and having inflicted much injury on 
Philip's army, returned to England. He soon, however, entered 
into an arrangement with the pope, and he sub- 

. ° .. . . John enters into 

scribed an instrument similar to one which he had arrangementawKh 
formerly rejected. By this it was stipulated, renders the king- 

,i ' ,i , T , iiii i (lorn into bis hands. 

among other matters, that Langton should be ad- 
mitted to the archbishopric of Canterbury, and that on the fulfil- 
ment of the conditions, the sentences of interdict and excommu- 
nication should be revoked, and the exiled bishops should swear, 
at the king's pleasure, to be true and faithful subjects. This 
happened on the thirteenth of May, 1213. The next day was 
spent by John, his council, and the papal minister in secret 
and anxious consultation. On the following morning, in the 
church of the Templars, the king, surrounded by the prelates, 
barons, and knights, put into the hands of Pandulph, the legate, 
a charter subscribed by himself, one archbishop, one bishop, 
nine earls, and three barons. This instrument testified that 
John, as an atonement for his offences, granted to God, to the 
holy apostles Peter and Paul, to Pope Innocent, and Innocent's 
rightful successors, the kingdom of England and the kingdom 
of Ireland, to be holden by himself and the heirs of his body 
of the bishop of Rome in fee, by the annual rent of one thousand 
marks. He then took the oath of fealty in the usual manner. 
From this moment, the barons began to demand the grant of their 
liberties. On John's refusal, they appealed by their agents to 

14 



158 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1213. 



the pontiff. Innocent, however, supported the cause of his vas- 
sal ; and the barons transferred their allegiance to Louis, the son 
of Philip. 

At the news of John's reconciliation with Rome, Philip's hopes 
of acquiring the English crown, the dream of his ambition, melted 
away, and his discontent exhausted itself in invectives against the 
pontiff. To his council he proposed to continue the enterprise, 
but was interrupted by Ferrand, earl of Flanders, a secret ally of 

The French kin" ^he English monarch. The French king invaded 
invades Fiauders. a Flanders j Ferrand received aid from England, 
and, after a short campaign, Philip returned to France. John now 
determined to carry the war into France, and summoned his re- 
tainers to meet him at Portsmouth. But the principal barons 
refused to accompany him. He was still under excommunication. 
He had not fulfilled the conditions of his treaty with the pope, 
which they had sworn that he should fulfil. John was compelled 
to submit. He invited the exiles to return, promised them his 
favor and protection, and sent to them a sum of money for their 
present necessities. Langton, the bishops of London, Ely, Here- 
ford, Lincoln, and Bath, the prior and monks of Christ-church, 
and their companions, gladly accepted the invitation. They met 
the king at Winchester ; John and the cardinal embraced, and 
the sentence of excommunication was publicly revoked at the en- 
trance of the cathedral. 

The king now hastened again to Portsmouth, ordered the 
troops to embark, and with a favorable wind set sail for the 
French coast. He reached the island of Jersey with a few ships, 
but found that none of the barons had followed him. They held 
meetings at St. Albans and in London, at one of which Arch- 

The oath of the bishop Langton, taking advantage of their enthu- 
barons - siasm, administered to them an oath, by which 

they bound themselves to each other to conquer or die in the 
defence of their liberties. 

In the mean time, John had landed, breathing revenge against 
the traitors who had abandoned their sovereign. He determined 
to punish their disobedience by military execution, but was dis- 
suaded by the primate. Soon afterward, John sailed to the coast 
of Poitou, and penetrated to the city of Angers. There he was 
found by the messengers from Rome ; who, having received his 



121-1 A. D.] JOHN. 159 

oath that he would observe the papal award respecting the losses 
sustained by the bishops, hastened to England, and revoked the 
interdict, after it had lasted more than sis years. The inter(iict re . 
John immediately marched toward Bretagne, but v °ked. 
his progress was arrested by the arrival of Louis, the son of Phi- 
lip, and from that moment both armies, as it were by mutual con- 
sent, suffered the war to linger, and waited the issue of Philip's 
campaign in the north. One hundred thousand men poured in 
at the north of Prance. To this torrent Philip could not oppose 
half the number of combatants; but the deficiency was supplied 
by the spirit and gallantry of his followers, the flower of the 
chivalry of France. The armies met at Bouvines, 
an obscure village on the river Marque, between 
Lisle and Tournay, where Philip gained the victory, and took 
the earl of Planders prisoner. 

The defeat at Bouvines broke all the measures of John, who 
solicited and obtained from Philip a truce for five years, and re- 
turned from an inglorious campaign in France to a still more 
inglorious contest in England. 

The barons now held numerous meetings. The different liber- 
ties for which they were to contend were accurately defined ; and 
it was determined to demand them in a body when The meetings of 
the king should hold his court at the festival of 1214. 
Christmas. At one of these meetings, before they separated, they 
advanced singly to the high altar, and took a solemn oath to with- 
draw their allegiance, if John should reject their claims; and to 
levy war upon him till he should grant them. On the feast of 
the Epiphany they presented their demands. The king at first 
assumed an air of superiority, and insisted that they should recede 
from such claims. Almost all obstinately refused. He had then 
recourse to delay, and offered to give them a satisfactory answer 
at the following Easter. This proposal, after much hesitation, 
was accepted. 

The interval was spent by the king in endeavors to fortify him- 
self against this formidable combination. Both parties had 
despatched messengers to Rome, to solicit the protection of their 
feudal superior. But it was in vain that the barons appealed to 
the gratitude of Innocent ; he deemed it his interest and duty to 
support the cause of his vassal. 



160 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1215. 



In Easter-week, the barons assembled at Stamford, and with 

two thousand knights, their esquires and followers, proceeded tc 

The barons as- Brackley. The kino; lay at Oxford, and comniis- 

-semble at Stam- . , . * ... ! ° /_ , ; . . . 

ford. sioned the arch bishop or Canterbury and the earls 

of Pembroke and Warenne to go and ascertain their demands. 
They brought him back a paper of the same import with that 
which had been presented to him before ; and, as soon as he had 
heard it read, he exclaimed, "They might as well have demanded 
my crown. Do they think I will grant them liberties which will 
make me a slave ?" After some ineffectual attempts by John at 
a settlement of the questions in dispute, the barons proclaimed 
themselves the army of God and his holy Church, and elected 
Robert Fitz-Walter for their commander. They took several im- 
portant places, and entered London without opposition. John, 
fearing for his crown, agreed to a conference. Pumnymede, situ- 

The meeting at ated between Staines and Windsor, was the scene 
naTh™u e obtam- of this important negotiation. On the one side 
ed; June is, 1215. s toocl Fitz-Walter, and the majority of the barons 
and nobility of England ; on the other, sat the king, accompanied 
by eight bishops, Pandulph, the papal envoy, and fifteen gentle- 
men. On this occasion Magna Charta was agreed to. This 
charter is celebrated in history as the supposed basis on which 
are founded the liberties of Englishmen. It is not, however, to 
be considered as forming a new code of law, or even as an attempt 
to inculcate the great principles of legislation. Its framers meant 
not to disturb or improve the national jurisprudence ; their only 
object was to correct the abuses which had grown out of the feu- 
dal customs under the despotism of the first William and his 
successors. 

The first article of the charter regarded the Church of England, 
to which John granted that it should possess all its liberties whole 

The articles of an( ^ inviolate. Other articles corrected several 
this charter. abuses which had crept into the feudal system. 

The principal clause was one which guaranteed to the subject 
freedom from the injustice of any unfair practices in legal tribu- 
nals. The full account of Magna Charta, in Dr. Lingard's 
work, should be read by those who wish to understand the minute 
details of this great historical document. 

The barons had left Eunnymede iu triumph, but their joy was 



1216 A. D.] JOHN. 161 

soon clouded with suspicion of the insincerity of John. The con- 
test was renewed on the arrival of foreign soldiers, whom John, 
contrary to treaty, had invited. The barons obtained possession 
of Rochester Castle, which the king besieged and took. While 
the king was employed in the siege of Rochester, he received the 
pleasing intelligence that, according to a request which he had 
made, the charter had been annulled by the pontiff, The charter an- 
on the ground of having been obtained by force, tiff. 
The pope wrote to the barons, exhorting them to submit, request- 
ing them to lay their claims before him, in the council to be held 
at Rome, and promising that he would induce the king to consent 
to whatever might be deemed just or reasonable, and would take 
care that all grievances should be abolished, that the crown 
should be content with its just rights, and the clergy and people 
should enjoy their ancient liberties. Finding that his exhorta- 
tions and his promises were equally fruitless, he ordered Langton 
to excommunicate the disobedient ; but that prelate refused ; in 
punishment, he was suspended from the exercise of the archi- 
episcopal functions. 

War now recommenced with vigor, and the king of Scots 
entered England, to assist the barons. John proceeded to the 
north, and never, we are told, since the extermi- war between 

. •,. . P t r* -iTT-iT it i • John and his ba- 

nating expedition ot the first William, had this rons. 
district been exposed to such horrors as it now experienced from 
the vengeance of the king of England. He himself gave the 
example, and with his own hands set fire in the morning to the 
house in which he had rested the last night. The castles, towns, 
and villages were given to the flames. Wherever the royal forces 
could penetrate, the inhabitants fled to the forests and mountains ; 
the labors of agriculture were suspended ; and the only markets 
were held in the churchyards, which, as they possessed the right 
of sanctuary, were generally, but not always, respected by the 
marauders. 

The barons now determined to offer the crown to Louis, the 
eldest son of the king of France. He was allied to the family of 
Plantagenet by his marriage with the niece of T he barons offer 
John. A fleet, carrying a numerous band of ^/TlolifS 
French knights, soon ascended the Thames, and a France - 
letter from Louis assured the confederates, that he would visit 



162 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 121G 



them at Easter with a powerful army. The pope directed Louis 
to desist, but that priuce refused, and was excommunicated. 
Soon afterward, he commanded the archbishop of Sens to fulmi- 
nate a similar sentence against Philip, the father of Louis ; but 
the French bishops, in a synod at Melun, resolved to disregard 
the papal mandate, on the ground that the pope had not been 
truly informed. That Innocent would have launched his ana- 
themas against their disobedience cannot be doubted ; but in a few 
weeks that active and fearless pontiff expired : his death suspended 
all ecclesiastical proceedings at Rome ; and John saw himself de- 
prived of his most powerful friend, at a moment when he stood in 
the greatest need of his protection. 

At the appointed time, Louis departed from Calais with a fleet 
of six hundred and eighty sail. The weather was stormy, and 
Louis departs dispersed the ships ; many were taken by the ma- 
re toes a it iS his TO a^ risers of the cinque ports; and John with a nume- 
proach. roua arm y i av j n the vicinity of Dover. But his 

heart failed him at the approach of the enemy : he feared that 
his mercenaries might desert; decamped on a sudden, and ra- 
vaging the country as he passed, retired through Winchester to 
Bristol, where he was joined by the legate. The French prince, 
having waited three days for the stragglers, landed at Sandwich, 
besieged and reduced the castle of Rochester, and hastened his 
march to the capital. He was received in procession by the barons 
and citizens, and conducted to St. Paul's, where, after he had 
made his prayer, he received the homage of his new subjects, and 
took a solemn oath to govern them by good laws, to protect them 
against their enemies, and to reinstate them in their former rights 
and possessions. By his affability, Louis charmed the natives, 
and won their confidence by appointing Simon Langton, the 
brother of the primate, to the office of the chancellor. The cam- 
paign was opened with the fairest promise of future success. All 
the counties in the neighborhood of the capital submitted ; the 
men of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, with the king of Scots, de- 
clared in his favor ; the foreigners who had hitherto swelled the 
army of John, began, with the exception of the natives of Gas- 
cony, either to join his standard, or to return to their homes; and 
at his summons several of the royal barons, perhaps through fear 
of his power, perhaps with the view of spreading disaffection 



121GA.D.] JOHN. 163 

among his adherents, hastened to do him homage and to swear 
fealty. Still the spirits of John were upheld by the arrival of the 
legate Gualo, who fought most manfully with his spiritual wea- 
pons, and by the knowledge that, if his rival had gained posses- 
sion of the open country, yet every fortress of importance was 
garrisoned by his own troops. To reduce these fortresses was the 
next object of the confederates. Louis besieged the castle of 
Dover ; the barons, under the earl of Nevers, that of Windsor. 
The prince had received from his father a military engine of the 
most formidable description, called the mal-voisin, or bad neigh- 
bor, with which he expected to make a breach in the walls. But 
the garrison kept him at too great a distance, compelled him to 
turn the siege into a blockade, and employed him in this useless 
project during the space of four months. The tediousness of the 
siege was partially relieved by the arrival of a royal vassal, Alex- 
ander, king of Scots, who, in consequence of a summons to that 
purpose, after the reduction of Carlisle, marched through the 
heart of the kingdom, within sight of John, visited Louis at 
Dover, obtained a confirmation of the cession made to him by the 
barons, did homage in London, and returned to his own country 
without molestation. 

While his enemies lay before the two castles, the king had im- 
proved the opportunity to pillage their estates, and intercept their 
supplies. He was at Wallingford, when the barons, Hostilities conti- 

*F ' ° ' . nue between John 

by the persuasion of the earl of Nevers, whom they and Louis. 
afterward charged with perfidy, undertook to surprise him. They 
raised the siege, and marched rapidly to Cambridge; but the 
king, anticipating their object, had already passed through that 
city, and retired as far as Stamford. Foiled in this attempt, they 
returned to join Louis at Dover, while John reduced Lincoln, and 
again distributed among his followers the lands belonging to the 
confederates. The royal cause began to assume a more pro- 
mising aspect. The two last months had been wasted in idleness 
by the French prince ; the men of the cinque ports perpetually 
intercepted his supplies from France; associations against him 
had been formed in Hampshire, Sussex, Surrey, and Kent ; and 
John, to invigorate the efforts of his friends, had not been sparing 
of promises to enlarge the privileges of those who were free, and 
to bestow liberty and rights on those who were not. Louis, by 



1G4 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. (A. D. 1216. 



grants to his own countrymen, particularly of the earldom of 
Winchester to the count de Nevers, and of that of Lincoln to 
Gilbert de Gand, had alarmed the English barons ; and it was 
whispered that the viscount de Melun had confessed on his death- 
bed that he had sworn, with the prince and fifteen others, to treat 
the natives as men whose perfidy to their late, was an earnest of 
future perfidy to their new sovereign. They became jealous of 
their allies; several barons and knights actually joined, and forty 
others, on the promise of pardon, offered to join the royal standard. 
The king returned from Lincoln, through Grimsby and Spalding, 
to Lynn, a town strongly attached to his interests, and the gene- 
ral depot for his supplies and treasures. Thence he marched to 
Wisbeach, and resolved to proceed across the Wash from the 
Cross Keys to Fossdike. The army had already reached the 
land ; but looking back, John beheld a long train of wagons and 
He loses his trea- sumpter-horses, which carried his jewels, insignia, 

sures bv the afflux . r ' . . . . , ' ,, 

of the tide. and money, swallowed up in a whirlpool, caused by 

the afflux of the tide and the current of the Welland. With a 
heavy heart he proceeded to the Cistercitm convent of Swines- 
head, where fatigue, or anxiety, or poison, or a surfeit, (for all 
these causes are mentioned,) threw him into a dangerous fever. 
He set out, however, in the morning, but was obliged to ex- 
change his horse for a litter, and was conveyed with difficulty to 
the castle of Sleaford. There he passed the night, and dictated 
a letter to the new pope, Honorius III., recommending in the 
most earnest terms the interest of his children to the protection 
of that pontiff. The next day conducted him to the castle of 
Newark ; where, sensible of his approaching fate, he sent for a 
confessor, appointed his eldest son Henry to succeed him, and 
executed a short will, by which he left the disposal of his pro- 
ms death Oc- P er ty to the discretion of certain trustees, and his 
tober 19th, 1216. body to be buried at Worcester, near the shrine 
of St. Wulstan. He expired three days later, in the forty-ninth 
year of his age, and the seventeenth of his reign. 

The character of John stands before us polluted with mean- 
ness, cruelty, perjury, and murder; uniting with an ambition 
The character of which rushed through every crime to the attain- 
John - ment of its object — a pusillanimity which often, at 

the sole appearance of opposition, sank into despondency. Arro- 



121GA. D.j JOHN. 165 

gant in prosperity, abject; in adversity, he neither conciliated af- 
fection in the one nor excited esteem in the other. His dissimu- 
lation was so well known, that it seldom deceived ; his habit of 
suspicion served to multiply his enemies ; and the knowledge of 
his vindictive temper contributed to keep open the breach be- 
tween him and those who had incurred his displeasure. Seldom 
perhaps was there a prince with a heart more callous to the sug- 
gestions of pity. Of his captives, many never returned from their 
dungeons ; if they survived their tortures, they were left to perish 
by famine. He could even affect to be witty at the expense of 
his victims; when Geoffrey, archdeacon of Norwich, a faithful 
servant, had retired from his seat at the exchequer on account of 
the interdict, the king ordered him to be arrested, and sent him 
a cope of lead, to keep him warm in his prison. The cope was a 
large mantle, covering the body from the shoulders to the feet, 
and worn by clergymen during the service. "Wrapped in this 
ponderous habit, with his head only at liberty, the unhappy man 
remained without food or assistance till he expired. On another 
occasion, he demanded a present of ten thousand marks from an 
opulent Jew at Bristol, and ordered one of his teeth to be drawn 
every morning till he should pay the money. The Jew was ob- 
stinate; the executioners began with his double teeth; he suf- 
fered the loss of seven, but on the eighth day solicited a respite, 
and gave security for the payment. 

Isabella, the wife of John, bore him three sons, Henry, 
Richard, and Edmund; and three daughters, Jane, Eleanor, and 
Isabella. 



166 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND 



CHAPTER XVI. 



fturg % %\u)j. 



[A. D. 1216. 



CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. 
Honorius III. 
Gregory IX. 
Celestin IV. 
Innocent IV. 
Alexander IV. 
Urban IV. 
Clement IV. 
Gregory X. 



Scotland. 
Alexander II. 
Alexander III. 

Germany. 

Otho rv. 
Frederic II. 
Interregnum of 22 
years. 



France. 
Philip Augustus. 
Louis VIII. 
Louis IX. 
Philip III. 

Spain. 
Henry I. 
Ferdinand III. 
Alphonso X. 



Coronation of Henry — Departure of Louis — War with France — Controversy be- 
tween Henry and his Barons — Battle of Lewes — Victory at Evesham — Death 
of the King.— From A.D. 1216 to 1272. 

Henry of Winchester had just completed his tenth year, when 
he found himself, by the sudden death of his father, in possession 
of the title, but with little of the power of a king. In London 
and the opulent provinces of the south, Louis reigned almost 
without an opponent; in the other counties the partisans of the 
French king were the more active, and his cause the more popu- 
lar ; and on the west and north, the princes of Wales and the 
king of Scotland had acknowledged his authority and become his 
vassals. On the tenth day after the decease of the late monarch, 
Henry was led to the abbey church of Gloucester, and having 
taken the oath usually administered to the English kings, and 
Henry crowned sworn fealty to Pope Honorius, was crowned by 

by the legate - . 

Guaio. the legate Gualo, and the bishops of Winchester, 

Exeter, and Bath, who placed on his temples a plain circle of 
gold, in lieu of the crown, which had been lost with the rest of 
the royal treasures. The next day, a proclamation was issued, in 
which the new king, lamenting the dissension between his father 
and the barons — a dissension which he would for ever dismiss 
from his memory — promised to all his subjects a full amnesty for 
the past, and their lawful liberties for the future ; required the 
tenants of the crown to do homage and swear fealty to himself as 



1216 A. D.] HENRY THE THIRD. 167 

their legitimate sovereign ; and forbade any person to appear in 
public during the next month, without a white fillet round the 
head, in honor of his coronation. The care of his person was in- 
trusted to the earl of Pembroke, earl marshal, with the title of 
guardian of the kingdom. 

A great council was summoned to meet at Bristol, and was at- 
tended by all the bishops and abbots, by several earls and barons, 
and by many knights. Magna Charta was here, after some 
alterations, ratified. 

The French king found that the English barons were inclined 
to support young Henry. The pope also was his warm friend. 
With slight intermission, war raged throughout Pcace a( len „ th 
England for about a year. The English having restored. 
gained an important victory near Lincoln, and having also de- 
feated the French in a decisive naval engagement, Louis felt him- 
self at last obliged to negotiate for terms. It was agreed that he 
should give back to the English barons their fealty and homage, 
and that Henry should grant to them a full amnesty on their re- 
turn to their allegiance ; that pcace on similar terms should be 
offered by Henry to the king of Scots and the Welsh prince, and 
that arrangement should be made for the discharge of debts, and 
the ransom and liberation of prisoners of war. 

The departure of Louis secured the crown to Henry, but the 
young king had not a single relation to whom he could recur for 
advice. Pope Honorius, as feudal superior, de- IIenry after the 
clared himself the guardian of the orphan, and departure of Louis, 
commanded the legate to reside near his person, watch over his 
safety, and protect his just rights. Magna Charta was again 
confirmed, but with additional alterations. By degrees tranquil- 
lity was restored ; and in the autumn Gualo returned to Borne. 
He was suceceded by Pandulph, who followed the example of his 
predecessor, and watched with solicitude over the interests of the 
young king. He repaired to Wales, and restored peace on the 
borders; he met the king of Scots at York, and negotiated a 
peace between the two kingdoms ; and by his letters and services 
he greatly contributed to prolong the truce between England and 
France. As doubts had been raised respecting the coronation at 
Gloucester, that ceremony was again performed. In the next 
year, Alexander of Scotland married at York, Jane, the elder of 



168 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1220. 



the two sisters of Henry, after "which, Pandulph immediately re- 
turned to Koine. 

Under the pretence of resisting an invasion threatened by the 

king of France, Henry in 1225 assembled a great council, and 

He assembles a most urgently demanded an aid. The demand 

creat council in n r- t l -i n i 

1225. was at first retused ; but the wants ot the crown 

would admit of no delay ; and, after some negotiation, it was sti- 
pulated that a fifteenth of all movables should be granted ; but on 
the condition that the two charters should be solemnly ratified ; 
which was done. 

Henry's reign lasted more than half a century. The transac- 
tions which fill it are so numerous and frequently so unconnected, 
that Dr. Lingard classifies the most important events under the 
three distinct heads, of the king's wars with foreign powers, his 
transactions with the pope, and his disputes with his barons. 

During the whole of Henry's reign, the harmony between 
England and Scotland was never interrupted by actual hostilities; 
Events during J et several subjects of altercation, principally re- 
Lis reign. latiug to doing " homage" for the crown of Scot- 

land, arose, which interrupted amicable relations. Of Wales, the 
native sovereign was Llewellyn, who was brother-in-law to Henry. 
This union, however, had not rendered him the less disposed to 
assert the rights of his country. Henry often led his army into 
Wales, and was as often compelled to return foiled and discon- 
tented. Llewellyn's successor, David, to free himself from the 
superiority of the king of England, sought to interest the pope in 
his favor, bj 7 offering to hold his principality of the Roman 
church. Innocent refused the offer, and Henry chastised the 
Welsh prince. At the death of David, the people of Wales 
elected two chieftains, who solicited the clemency of the king of 
England, became his vassals, and bound themselves to serve in 
his wars, with five hundred of their subjects. 

Louis of France had made a promise to restore Normandy, 
Maine, and Anjou to Henry, whenever he should succeed to the 
crown. Philip, his father, died in 1223. Louis, on being asked 
to perform his engagement, gave a peremptory refusal, saying 
that he was no longer bound by the treaty. Nor was he content 
with a mere refusal, but even endeavored to extend his own pos- 
sessions at the expense of the English monarch. Henry sent an 



. 



1233 A. D.] HENRY THE THIRD. 169 

army to protect his remaining continental territories ; but, at the 
request of the papal legate, both crowns agreed to an armistice 
for twelve months, before the expiration of which the king of 
France died, and was succeeded by his son, Louis IX. The 
troubles which followed his accession offered to Henry, who had 
now reached his twentieth year, a most favorable opportunity of 
regaining the patrimony of his ancestors. He therefore, after 
some time, assembled a large army, and, in Henry invades 
1230, crossed over to France. The war continued France - 
for a long period, with varying fortune; and, at length, after 
many years spent in the arrangement of terms, peace was con- 
cluded in 1259, each monarch making some concessions. 

The history of Henry's transactions with the court of Rome, 
discloses a long course of oppression, under which the English 
clergy were compelled to submit to the most grievous exactions. 
The Christian hierarchy had, from the earliest The christian 
ages, been distinguished by a regular gradation hierarchy, 
of office and authority, from the lowest clerk to the bishop of 
Rome, who was acknowledged the chief of the episcopal body, 
and the vicegerent of Christ upon earth. The English, like 
every other national church, was called upon to contribute 
toward the support of the Roman see, and some grievances 
sprang out of this system: as the popes, in imitation of the 
temporal princes, often required a tallage of the clergy, amount- 
ing generally to a considerable share of their annual income; the 
popes also often nominated Italians to English livings, and this 
was deemed a hardship by the clergy of England. These two 
causes of discontent were, after a long negotiation, removed by 
some concessions on both sides. 

During this reign, the pope having quarrelled with the emperor 
Frederic, who had held Sicily, offered that territory to Henry for 
his son Edmund. This arrangement, however, for various causes, 
never took effect. 

Henry inherited the antipathy of his father to the charter of 
Runnymede, and considered his barons as his enemies. He 
therefore frequently found himself in angry col- Henry's antipa- 

v • •,, ., . ,, , iii thy to the charter 

lision with tnem, especially whenever he had oc- of Runnymede. 
casion for fresh supplies. Henry's partiality for foreign favor- 
ites was the principal cause of the discontent of the English ba- 

L 15 



170 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1233 

rons. An insurrection took place in 1233, and Henry dismissed 
the foreigners from his councils. The insurgents were restored 
to favor, and ministers appointed who possessed the confidence 
of the nation. 

At the age of twenty-nine, the king married Eleanor, the 
daughter of Raymond, count of Provence. This circumstance 

Henry marries c ^ rew man y foreigners to the English court, who 
Eleanor. were rapidly promoted to high offices. The na- 

tives renewed their complaints, and waited with impatience for 
the return of Richard, the king's brother, from Palestine; but 
that prince was induced to espouse the cause of the foreigners, 
and to marry Sanchia, another of the daughters of Raymond. 
Associations were formed to redress the grievances of the nation. 
Under the decent pretest of preventing the misapplication of the 
revenue, a demand was repeatedly made that the appointment of 
the officers of state should be vested in a great council ; and at 
length the constitution was entirely overturned by the bold am- 
bition of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester. 

Henry having consented that a national assembly should be 
held, the great council distinguished in our annals by the appcl- 

The '^mad par- lation of the " mad parliament," assembled at 
1258. ' Oxford. The barons, to intimidate their oppo- 

nents, were attended by their military tenants, and took an oath 
to stand faithfully by each other, and to treat "as a mortal 
enemy" every man who should abandon their cause. The com- 
mittee of reform was appointed. . In a short time the triumph of 
Leicester was complete. The justiciary, the chancellor, the trea- 
surer, all the sheriffs, and the governors of the principal castles 
belonging to the king, twenty in number, were removed, and 
their places were supplied by the chiefs of the reformers, or the 
most devoted of their adherents. Having thus secured to them- 
selves the sovereign authority, and divested Henry of the power 

Four measures °f resistance, the committee began the work of 
of reform. reform by ordaining — 1. That four knights should 

be chosen by the freeholders of each county, to ascertain and lay 
before the parliament the trespasses, excesses, and injuries com- 
mitted within the county under the royal administration ; 2. That 
a new high sheriff should be annually appointed for each county 
by the votes of the freeholders; 3. That all sheriffs, and the trea- 



1261 A. D.] HENRY THE THIRD. 171 

surer, chancellor, and the justiciary, should annually give in 
their accounts; 4. And that parliaments should meet thrice in 
the year, in the beginning of the months of February, June, 
and October. 

Henry was for some years the mere shadow of a king. The 
acts of government, indeed, ran in his name, but the sovereign 
authority was exercised without control by the lords of the coun- 
cil ; and obedience to the royal orders, when the king ventured 
to issue orders, was severely punished, as a crime against the 
safety of the state. At length, in 1261, Henry Henry endeavors 

.... mi i • t -i • i -.to regain his pow- 

persuaded himself that the time had arrived when er. 
he might resume his authority. He repaired to the Tower, which 
was fortified, seized on the treasure in the Mint, ordered the gates 
of London to be closed, compelled all the citizens above twelve 
years of age to swear fealty in their respective wardmotes, and by 
proclamation commanded the knights of the several counties to 
attend the next parliament in arms. The barons immediately 
assembled their retainers, and marched to the neighborhood of 
the capital ; but each party, diffident of its strength, betrayed an 
unwillingness to begin hostilities, and it was unanimously agreed 
to postpone the discussion of their differences till the return of 
Prince Edward, who was in France, displaying his prowess at a 
tournament. He returned in haste, and, to the astonishment of 
all who were not in the secret, embraced the interests of the 
barons. The earls of Leicester and Gloucester, with the bishop 
of Worcester, summoned three knights from every county south 
of the Trent, to meet them at St. Albans ; but a temporary re- 
conciliation was effected, and the king, by his writs, annulling 
the previous summons, ordered the same knip-hts 

r . . '. .' i Tne meetlD S at 

to repair to him at Windsor, that they might be Windsor, 
present at his intended conference with the barons, and convince 
themselves of the justice and utility of his demands. Several 
interviews between the parties took place in London. At first 
the barons appeared to consent to a plan of pacification offered by 
the king; afterward it was resolved to refer their differences, 
some to the decision of the king of France, and some to that of 
the king of the Romans. The earl of Leicester, however, found 
means to prevent the execution of the agreement ; and a third 
meeting was held, in which the barons abandoned the greater part 



172 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 12G5 



of the provisions, and the king confirmed such as were evidently 
conducive to the welfare of the realm. Leicester was still dis- 
satisfied, and returned to France, observing that he should never 
trust the faith of a perjured king. 

The king finding himself at liberty, was induced to visit Louis 

of France, and Leicester embraced the opportunity to return to 

Leicester returns England, and reorganize the association which had 

to England, and so lately been dissolved. With the royal banner 

opposes the royal ^ J 

authority. displayed before them, the barons took Gloucester, 

Worcester, and Bridgenorth, ravaged without mercy the lands of 
the royalists, the foreigners, and the natives who refused to join 
their ranks ; and, augmenting their numbers as they advanced, 
directed their march toward London. In London the aldermen 
and principal citizens were devoted to the king ; the mayor and 
the populace openly declared for the barons. Henry was in pos- 
session of the Tower ; and Prince Edward, after taking by force 
one thousand marks out of the Temple, hastened to throw him- 
self into the castle of Windsor, the most magnificent palace, if 
we may believe a contemporary, then existing in Europe. The 
power of the two parties was equally balanced, and their mutual 
apprehensions inclined them to listen to the pacific exhortations 
of the bishops. It was agreed to refer every subject of dispute 
to the arbitration of the king of France — an expedient which had 
been proposed the last year by Henry, but rejected by Leicester. 
Louis is made ar- Louis accepted the honorable office, and sum- 

bitrator of the dis- ,,, . ,„ 1 . ,»• 

pute. moned the parties to appear betore nim at Amiens. 

The king attended in person; Leicester, who was detained at 
home in consequence of a real or pretended fall from his horse, 
had sent his attorneys. Both parties solemnly swore to abide 
by the decision of the French monarch. Louis heard the allega- 
tions and arguments of each, consulted his court, and pronounced 
judgment in favor of Henry. The barons had already taken 
their resolution. The moment the decision was announced to 
them, they declared that it was contradictory of itself, and there- 
fore a nullity ; for it preserved in force the great charter, and yet 
annulled the provisions which grew out of that charter ; and that 
it had been procured by the undue influence which the queen of 
Louis, the sister-in-law to Henry, possessed over the mind of her 
husband. Hostilities immediately recommenced; and as every 



1263 A. D.] HENRY THE THIRD. 173 



man of property was compelled to adhere to one Civil war again 
of the two parties, the flames of civil war were li s htea up- 
lighted up in almost every part of the kingdom. In the North, 
and in Cornwall and Devon, the decided superiority of the royal- 
ists forced the friends of the barons to dissemble their real senti- 
ments ) the midland counties and the marches of Wales were 
pretty equally divided ; but in the cinque ports, the metropolis, 
and the neighbouring districts, Montfort ruled without oppo- 
sition. 

Henry, having summoned the tenants of the crown to meet 
him at Oxford, unfurled his standard, and placed himself at the 
head of the army. His first attempts were sue- iienry at the 
cessful. Northampton, Leicester, and Notting- his success. 
ham, three of the strongest fortresses in the possession of the 
barons, were successively reduced; and among the captives at 
Northampton were reckoned Simon, the eldest of Leicester's sons, 
fourteen other bannerets, forty knights, and a numerous body of 
esquires. From Nottingham, where he had been joined by Co- 
myn, Bruce, and Baliol, the lords on the borders of Scotland, he 
was recalled into Kent by the danger of his nephew Henry, be- 
sieged in the castle of Rochester. At his approach, the enemy, 
who had taken and pillaged the city, retired with precipitation ; 
and the king, after an ineffectual attempt to secure the co-opera- 
tion of the cinque ports, fixed his head-quarters in the town of 
Lewes. 

Leicester, having added a body of fifteen thousand citizens to 
his army, marched from London, with a resolution to bring the 
controversy to an issue. After some fruitless ne- Battle of Lewes, 
gotiations, a sanguinary battle was fought at Lewes, prisoner, 
on the 14th of May, 1264, in which the royal array was defeated, 
and the king was taken prisoner. 

Leicester was now in reality possessed of more extensive au- 
thority than Henry had ever enjoyed ; but he soon discovered 
that to retain the object of his ambition would re- The conoequences 
quire the exertion of all his powers. The cause of this battle - 
of the captive monarch was ardently espoused by foreign nations, 
and by the sovereign pontiff. Adventurers from every province 
of France crowded to the royal standard, which Queen Eleanor 
had erected at Damme, in Flanders; and a numerous fleet assem- 

15* 



174 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1264. 



bled in the harbor, to transport to England the thousands who 
had sworn to humble the pride of a disloyal and aspiring subject. 
To oppose them, Leicester had summoned to the camp on Barham 
Downs, not only the king's military tenants, but the whole force 
of the nation; and, taking on himself the command of the fleet, 
cruised in the narrow seas, to intercept the invaders. But the 
winds seemed to be leagued with the earl ; the queen's army was 
detained for several weeks in the vicinity of Damme : and the 
mercenaries gradually disbanded themselves, when the short 
period for which they had contracted to serve had expired. 

Leicester was harassed with repeated solicitations for the release 
of the two princes, Edward and Henry. At length he pretended 
a parliament con- to acquiesce, and convoked a parliament to meet, 
voked. for the avowed purpose of giving the sanction of 

the legislature to so important a measure. But the partial man- 
ner in which this assembly was constituted provoked a suspicion 
that his real object was to consolidate and perpetuate his own 
power. The princes were, however, released, though on very 
stringent conditions. 

It is generally supposed that the project of summoning to par- 
liament the representatives of the counties, cities, and boroughs, 
grew out of that system of policy which Leicester had long pur- 
sued — of flattering the prejudices and attaching to himself the 
affections of the people. Nor had his efforts proved unsuccessful. 
Men in the higher ranks of life might penetrate behind the vail 
with which he sought to conceal his ambition ; but by the nation 
at large he was considered as the reformer of abuses, the pro- 
tector of the oppressed, and the saviour of his country. It cost 
him some years and much labor to climb to the summit of his 
greatness ; his descent was rapid beyond the calculation of the 
most sanguine among his enemies. He had hitherto enjoyed the 
co-operation of the powerful earls of Derby and Gloucester ; but if 

Dispute between he was too ambitious to admit of an equal, they 
ana Gloucester. ' were too proud to bow to a fellow-subject ; fre- 
quent altercations betrayed their secret jealousies; and the sud- 
den arrest and imprisonment of Derby, on a charge of corre- 
sponding with the royalists, warned Gloucester of his own danger, 
and he unfurled the royal standard in the midst of his tenantry. 
Leicester immediately hastened to Hereford with the king, the 



1265 A. D.] HENRY THE THIRD. 175 

prince, and a numerous body of knights. To prevent the effusion 
of blood, their common friends intervened ; a reconciliation was 
effected ; and four umpires undertook the task of reconciling their 
differences. But under this appearance of friendship, all was hol- 
low and insincere. Leicester sought to circumvent his adversary ; 
Gloucester waited the result of a plan for the liberation of Ed- 
ward, which had been concerted through the means of Tbomas 
de Clare, brother to the earl, and companion to the prince. 

One day, after dinner, Edward obtained permission to take the 
air without the walls of Hereford, attended by his keepers. They 
rode to Widmarsh. A proposal was made to try the speed of 
their horses ; several matches were made and run ; and the after- 
noon was passed in a succession of amusements. A little before 
sunset there appeared on Tullington Hill a person riding on a 
gray charger, and waving his bonnet. The prince, Prince EdwarJ 
who knew the signal, bidding adieu to the com- son. 
pany, instantly galloped off, and succeeded in joining Gloucester, 
who was at Ludlow. 

"When Leicester received the news of Edward's escape, he con- 
ceived that the prince was gone to join the earl of Warenne, and 
William de Valence, who a few days before had landed, with one 
hundred and twenty knights, on the coast of Pembrokeshire. 
After several engagements with the friends of the king, Leicester 
was obliged to fly into Wales. He returned, however, to Eng- 
land, and fought at Evesham against Prince Ed- The battle of 
ward. In this battle the old king, who had been ^Kfcester! 
compelled to appear in the ranks, was slightly August 4, 1205. 
wounded ; and, as he fell from his horse, would probably have 
been killed had he not cried out to his antagonist, " Hold, fellow, 
I am Harry of Winchester." The prince knew the voice of his 
father, sprang to his rescue, and conducted him to a place of 
safety. During his absence, Leicester's horse was killed under 
him, and, as he fought on foot, he asked, " if they gave quarter." 
A voice replied, " There is no quarter for traitors." Henry de 
Montfort, his eldest son, who would not leave his side, fell at his 
feet. His dead body was soon covered by that of the father. 
The royalists obtained a complete but sanguinary victory. 

By this event, the sceptre was replaced in the hands of Henry. 
With their leader, the hopes of the barons had been extinguished; 



176 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1272. 



they spontaneously set at liberty the prisoners who had been de- 
tained since the battle of Lewes, and anxiously awaited the de- 
The meetino . of termination of the parliament, which had been 
parliament. summoned to meet at Winchester. In that as- 

sembly it was enacted, that all grants and patents issued under 
the king's seal, during the time of his captivity, should be re- 
voked ; that the citizens of London, for their obstinacy and ex- 
cesses, should forfeit their charter ; that the countess of Leices- 
ter and her family should quit the kingdom ; and that the estates 
of all who had adhered to the late earl should be confiscated. 

The news of the victory of Evesham filled the court of Rome 

with joy. The pope instantly wrote to the king and the prince, 

to express his gratitude to the Almighty for so propitious an 

The pope, on hear- event ; but at the same time earnestly exhorted 

in g of the yictory them to use with moderation the license of vic- 

of Lresham, ad- 
vises clemency, tory; to temper justice with mercy; to recollect 

that revenge was unworthy of a Christian, and that clemency was 
the firmest pillar of a throne. When the legate arrived, he re- 
peated the instructions of the pontiff, and disapproved of the 
harsh measures adopted by the parliament at Winchester. His 
object was the restoration of peace ; and with this view he hesi- 
tated not to employ the papal authority against one party or the 
other, compelling them by censures to recede from the extrava- 
gance of their demands ; and, by diffusing a spirit of moderation, 
greatly contributed to the restoration of tranquillity. 

Prince Edward left England at this time for the Holy Land. 
He was not gone more than two years, when the king died. Re- 
peated maladies had gradually worn out his constitution. In the 
spring of the year 1271, he had been in the most imminent dan- 
ger, and had earnestly required, by letter, the return of Prince 
Edward. On his recovery, he undertook to provide for the liqui- 
dation of his debts, by appointing commissioners to receive and 
administer his revenue, reserving to his private use no more than 
one hundred and twenty pounds in the year. But the death of 

The infirmities his brother, the murder of his nephew, and the 

and death of lien- , „ . . tit •, o • t , • 

ry. absence ot his son, added anxiety ot mind to in- 

firmity of body ; his health rapidly declined, and he expired at 
Westminster, with the most edifying sentiments, on the 16th of 
November, 1272, in the fifty-seventh year of his reign. 



1272 A. D.] HENRY THE THIRD. 177 

Gentle and credulous, warm in his attachments, and forgiving 
in his enmities, without vices, but also without energy, Henry 
was a good man and a weak monarch. In a more The character of 
peaceful age, when the empire of the laws had Henry, 
been strengthened by habits of obedience, he might have filled 
the throne with decency, perhaps with honor; but his lot cast 
him into one of the most turbulent periods of our history, with- 
out the talents to command respect, or the authority to enforce 
submission. Yet his incapacity was productive rather of incon- 
venience to himself than of misery to his subjects. Under his 
weak but pacific sway, the nation grew more rapidly in wealth 
and prosperity than it had done under any of his military pro- 
genitors. Out of the fifty-six years through which he extended 
his reign, but a very small portion was marked by the calamities 
of war; the tenants of the crown were seldom dragged by him 
into foreign countries, or impoverished by taxes for the support 
of mercenary armies ; the proprietors, deprived of two sources of 
wealth — the plunder of an enemy, and the ransom of captives — 
turned their attention to the improvement of their estates; salu- 
tary enactments invigorated the spirit of commerce; and there 
scarcely existed a port from the coast of Norway to the shores of 
Italy, that was not annually visited by English merchants. 

Of Henry's children, the greater part died in their childhood. 
Two sons and two daughters survived him. Edward, the eldest, had 
married Eleanor, the daughter of Ferdinand, king of Castile, and 
enjoyed, during the life of his father, a yearly income of fifteen 
thousand marks. Edmund had obtained, by the forfeiture of the 
Montforts, the numerous estates, with the honors of that family, 
and thus laid the foundation of the power which enabled his de- 
scendants of the house of Lancaster to wrest the sceptre from the 
hands of Eichard II., and retain it to the prejudice of the right- 
ful heir. The daughters were Margaret, queen of Scotland, and 
Beatrix, duchess of Bretagne.* 

* In this portion of his work, Dr. Lingard enters at considerable length into 
the question of the origin of parliamentary representation. The historical 
student who would understand the constitution minutely, should read this 
learned dissertation, and also the historical account of the changes which the 
laws of England underwent during Henry's protracted reign. 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



[A.D. 1271. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



(fffttoarb tin fint. 



CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. 


Scotland. 


Germany. 


Gregory X. 




Rodolph. 


Innocent V. 


Alexander III. 


Adolphus. 


Adrian V. 


Margaret. 


Albert. 


John XXL 


Interregnum. 




Nicholas III. 


Baliol. 


France. 


Martin IV. 


Interregnum. 


Philip III. 


Honorius IV. 


Robert I. 


Philip IV. 


Nicholas IV. 






Celestin V. 




Spain. 


Boniface VIII. 




Alphonso X. 


Benedict XL 




Sancho IV. 


Clement V. 




Ferdinand IV 



Edward returns from Palestine — Conquers Wales — Hostilities with Scotland — 
William Wallace — Conquers Scotland — Royal Exactions — Opposition of the 
Clergy and Barons — Bruce claims the Crown of Scotland — Edward prepares 
to invade Scotland— His Death.— From A. D. 1271 to 1307. 

Edward was in the East when Lis father died. His own fol- 
lowers did not amount to one thousand men ; yet there was a 
magic in the name of a prince whose blood was derived from the 
same source with that of the " lion-hearted Richard j" and both 
Christians and infidels expected that he would equal the fame of 
that hero. But though he remained eighteen months at Acre, 
an expedition to Nazareth, the capture of two small castles, and 
the surprise of a caravan, comprehend the whole history of his 
military labors. Instead of the laurels of a conqueror, accident 
invested him with the glory of a martyr. One day, while repos- 

Edward is wound- * U m n * S teut > a man °^ tne tr ^ e ea ^ e ^ -Assassins 

ed in his tent. (hence the use of the word for murderer) entered, 
and aimed a desperate blow at the heart of the prince, who re- 
ceived it on his arm, grappled with him, and, throwing him on 
the ground, despatched him with his own weapon. Still, how- 
ever, the danger was great; the dagger had been dipped in 
poison ; several wounds had been received in the struggle, and 



1274 A. D.] EDWARD THE FIRST. 179 

Edward, aware of the probable consequences, hastened to prepare 
and sign his will. Fortunately, every dangerous symptom was 
removed by the skill of an English surgeon, who pared away the 
sides of the wounds ; and, in a few weeks, the king, through the 
attentions of an affectionate wife and the aid of a vigorous con- 
stitution, was restored to perfect health. 

The conclusion of a truce with the sultan for ten years, gave a 
long respite to the Christians of Acre, and allowed the prince an 
opportunity of returning to Europe with honor. A truce conciu- 
As he travelled through Sicily and Calabria, he g„£ d to Ed Jg 
received the first news of his father's death. His land - 
journey through Italy was a triumphal procession ; he was con- 
sidered as the champion of Christendom, the martyr of the cross. 
He proceeded to Paris, and did homage to Philip for the lands 
which u he held by right of the crown of France." From Paris 
it was expected that he would hasten to England ; but he was 
called back to Guienne by the distracted state of that province, 
and detained there till the following year. He came to England 
in August, 1274, and was crowned at Westminster with his con- 
sort. Almost two years had elapsed from Henry's death, and 
yet the kingdom had remained tranquil. 

Edward's first contest was with Wales. Prince Llewellyn 
aspired to the honor of asserting the independence of his country, 
and had resolved not to acknowledge a superior, 

° L War -with Wales. 

unless he were compelled by the fortune ot arms. 
At first, the English prelates and barons interceded in his favor ; 
his excuses and delays exhausted their patience ; they pronounced 
him a rebel, and granted supplies toward the expenses of the war. 
Edward's military tenants assembled in the counties of Shropshire 
and Cheshire ; at midsummer he crossed the Dee, advanced along 
the coast, took and fortified the two castles of Flint and Rhuddlan, 
obtained possession of Anglesea, and with his fleet cut off the 
communication between Snowdun and the sea. Llewellyn, con- 
fined to barren mountains and forests, soon felt the privations of 
famine ; and in a few weeks was compelled to throw himself with- 
out reserve on the mercy of his adversary. 

Edward made peace on stringent conditions, but did not insist 
on their performance. In the opinion of Edward, the subjugation 
of Wales was now accomplished. He flattered himself that what 



180 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1282, 



he bad begun by force, be bad completed by kindness. But be 
bad formed a false estimate of tbe Welsh character at that period. 
Hatred of tbe English had been bequeathed to the natives as a 
sacred legacy, by their fathers, through many generations ; nor 
was there an individual, from the prince to the peasant, who was 
not ready at any time to draw the sword for the independence of 
his country. 

On Palm Sunday, 1282, David, brother of Llewellyn, surprised 
the strong castle of Hawarden. This was the signal of a general 
The warin Wales insurrection. Llewellyn immediately joined his 
renewed. brother, and besieged tbe castles of Flint and 

Rhuddlan ; the different chieftains assembled their families and 
dependants; and the Welsh poured from their mountains into 
the marches, laid tbe country waste with fire and sword, and in- 
flicted every calamity on the inhabitants. The Welsh had added 
artificial to the natural defences of their mountains; the king 
either could not or would not attempt to force their position. He 
reduced Anglesea; but the advantage was balanced by a severe 
disaster. A bridge of boats bad been hastily thrown across tbe 
Menai, and a numerous force passed from tbe island to discover 
the position of the enemy. As they incautiously ascended the 
hill, a party of Welshmen suddenly started from a place of con- 
cealment. Their appearance and shouts intimidated tbe English, 
who fled in confusion to the beach ; but tbe tide bad divided the 
bridge, and the fugitives poured in such numbers into the boats 
that they sank, and almost the whole party was lost. 

Llewellyn refused the terms which Edward offered, and trusted 
to the severity of the winter for the dissolution of the invading 
The Welsh final- arni y- Edward had ordered a strong force to as- 
iy subdued. semble in tbe vicinity of Carmarthen ; and Llewel- 

lyn, leaving the defence of Snowdun to his brother, hastened to 
Bluit, in Radnorshire. The English, under Edmund Mortimer 
and John G-iffard, appeared on the left bank of tbe Wye. They 
defeated the Welsh in a battle, and Llewellyn was slain in a barn. 

Tbe independence of Wales expired with Llewellyn. As soon 
as his death was known, the other chieftains hastened to make 
their submission, and were received with kindness by the policy 
of Edward. David alone held back. He was soon, however, taken 
prisoner by Edward, who caused him to be tried and executed. 



1283 A. D.] EDWARD THE FIRST. 181 

Edward spent more than a year in Wales, or near the borders, 
that he might secure the permanency of his conquest. To allure 
the Welsh from the roving manner of life to His efforts to im- 
which they had been accustomed, he established tion of the Welsh, 
corporate bodies of merchants in the principal towns; and to 
restrain their habits of violence and bloodshed, introduced the 
jurisprudence of the English courts, divided the country into 
shires and hundreds, and issued new forms of writs, adapted to 
the Welsh manners and tenures. During the king's stay in the 
country, Eleanor, his queen, was delivered of her son Edward, in 
the castle of Carnarvon. The natives claimed the child as their 
countryman; and when he was afterward declared Prince of 
Wales, joyfully hailed the event, as if it had proclaimed the resto- 
ration of their independence. The title "Prince of Wales" has 
since been always conferred on the eldest son of the sovereign of 
England. 

From the final pacification of Wales to the commencement of 
the troubles in Scotland, elapsed an interval of four years, one 
of which was spent by Edward in England, in Edward is arbi- 
legislating for his own subjects, the rest on the kings of France, 
continent in the difficult but honorable office of i y . ra ° n ' an 
arbitrator between the kings of France, Arragon, and Sicily. 
While Edward was thus employed in the concerns of foreign 
states, the people of England complained that he neglected the 
interests of his own kingdom. The refusal of a supply by the 
parliament admonished him to return ; and he soon found in the 
unfortunate situation of Scotland an ample field for the exercise 
of his policy and ambition. His sister Margaret had been dead 
fifteen years, and her daughter Margaret alone of the Scottish 
royal family survived. Edward saw, and resolved not to forfeit 
the opportunity. He had it now in his power to unite the Eng- 
lish and Scottish crowns on the head of his own son, by marry- 
ing him to the infant queen, whose death, however, soon put an 
end to the negotiations which were entered on. 

By the demise of Margaret, the posterity of the three last kings 
of Scotland had become extinct; and no fewer than thirteen 
claimants appeared, who, with one exception, competitors for 
founded their pretensions to the crown on their the Scottish crown, 
descent from the royal family. The true heir, however, was to 

16 



182 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1291 



be sought' among the descendants of David, earl of Huntingdon, 
the brother of King William. From Margaret, the eldest of his 
daughters, was sprung John Baliol; from Isabella, the second, 
Robert Bruce, and from Ada, the third, John Hastings. The 
point therefore to be decided was, whether the crown belonged of 
right to Baliol, the representative of the elder daughter, though 
more remote by one degree, or to Bruce, the representative of the 
second daughter, because he was nearer by one degree. The con- 
flicting claims of Bruce and Baliol split the whole nation into 
two factions. The decision was referred by common consent to 
the judgment and impartiality of Edward. Edward accepted the 
office, not as arbitrator selected by the parties, but as lord para- 
mount, whose duty and right it was to administer justice in dis- 
putes between his vassals. He had already announced his pre- 
tensions to the prelates, barons, and commonalty of Scotland, and 
summoned them to meet him at Norham, on the borders of the 
two kingdoms. After much delay, the decision was unanimously 
in favor of Baliol, and that prince swore fealty to Edward. 

Baliol, to obtain a crown, had consented to wear it as a vassal. 
He soon felt the consequences of vassalage, and was taught by a 
Baiioi and Mac- succession of petty indignities to regret the more 
auff - humble station from which he had risen. Every 

suitor in his courts, who was dissatisfied with the decision of the 
king, could appeal to the equity of his superior lord. The only 
appeal which could give uneasiness to the new king was brought 
by Macduff, the son of Malcolm, earl of Fife. During the Scot- 
tish interregnum, the regents, by the command of the king of 
England, had heard his claim, and adjudged to him the pos- 
session of certain lands. Baliol, however, by the advice of his 
council, and on the ground that these estates ought to remain in 
the hands of the king during the minority of another claimant, 
cast Macduff into prison. Macduff appealed to the equity of their 
common lord; and Baliol was summoned to answer his complaint 
in the king's court, in Trinity term. Baliol attended, and as soon 
as the complaint of Macduff had been read, arose, disclaimed all 
intended contempt of Edward, and maintained that he was not 
bound to answer the appellant. The court decided against him, 
and Macduff prayed judgment in his own favor. Edward observed 
to Baliol, that he had sworn fealty. The king of Scots replied, 



1294 A. D.] EDWARD THE FIRST. 183 

that it was a matter which regarded the rights of his crown, and 
in which he did not dare to answer without the advice of the 
good men of his realm. Edward now required the advice of the 
prelates, lords, and judges forming his council, by whom it was 
resolved, that Baliol had offered no defence; that the king of 
Scots by refusing to answer had committed a manifest contempt 
and disobedience ; and that until he made satisfaction for such 
contempt and disobedience, three of his castles in Scotland, with 
their royalties, should be sequestrated in the king's hands. But 
before this judgment was pronounced, Baliol obtained an adjourn- 
ment till the following Easter. Baliol obtained adjournment 
after adjournment, till the war ensued which deprived him of his 
kingdom. 

While Edward thus exercised his newly acquired superiority 
over his vassal the king of Scots, he was doomed to experience, 
as duke of Aquitaine, similar mortifications from the superior 
jurisdiction of his lord, the king of France. The pretended 
offence, for which that monarch deprived him of G-ascony, grew 
out of a private dispute between some sailors on the French coast. 
The mariners of each country took part in the quarrel, and the 
seas were covered with hostile squadrons, which, without any com- 
mission from their sovereigns, made war on each other, and under 
the influence of passion, perpetrated outrages un- Engagement be- 

... ,.,. ° tween the Norman 

known to legitimate hostility. A Norman fleet, ana English fleets. 
amounting to more than two hundred sail of all descriptions, after 
riding for some time triumphant in the Channel, pillaged the 
coast of Gascony, and returned with their plunder to St. Mahe, a 
port in Bretagne. Here they were discovered by the mariners at 
Portsmouth and the cinque ports, who had collected eighty stout 
ships, well manned, and prepared for battle. A challenge was 
given and accepted. The English captured every ship of the 
enemy, and, as no quarter was given, the majority of the crews 
perished in the ocean. 

This defeat, so murderous and disgraceful, provoked the resent- 
ment of Philip. From the king of England he could only demand 
redress ; from the duke of Aquitaine he could exact it. A pe- 
remptory summons was issued, ordering Edward rwiip orders Ed- 

. . . ~ . ward to appear 

to appear, and answer tor these offences and con- and answer, 
tempts against his sovereign. The king, who saw the real object 



184 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1296. 



of Philip, endeavored to appease his resentment. Philip said 
that his sole object was to guard his honor ; and a promise was 
given that, if Grascony were surrendered to him during forty days, 
it should, at the expiration of that period, be faithfully restored. 
The citation against Edward was withdrawn, and possession was 
given of Grascony to the French king. At the expiration of forty 
days, Philip was reminded of his engagement, but he gave a posi- 
tive refusal. Edward prepared to enforce his right at the head 
of a powerful army. But the elements seemed to have conspired 
with his own subjects to frustrate his design. For seven weeks 
he was detained at Portsmouth by contrary winds ; and the "Welsh, 
who believed him to have sailed, rose in every part of the princi- 
pality. A second time the conquest of Wales was achieved. 
Edward condemned the chieftains who had joined in the rebellion 
to close confinement in separate castles; their estates he gave 
to their heirs, but with a threat, that if they should imitate the 
perfidy of their fathers, they must expect a more severe punish- 
ment. The admonition was remembered ; and from that period 
the Welsh began to attend to the cultivation of the soil, the profits 
of commerce, and the arts of peace. 

When Edward returned to his capital, he prepared to recover 

his transmarine dominions ; again he was recalled to oppose his 

The Scottish ba- adversaries within the island. The Scottish barons 

Tons assert their . ,, , ,i • i i d ai ■ . 

independence. longed to assert the independence 01 their country, 
but, warned by the fate of the Welsh insurgents, sought to fortify 
their efforts with the aid of the French monarch. The timid 
mind of Baliol wavered ; he calculated the power of Edward, and 
trembled at the consecpiences of a failure. At last he yielded, 
and an alliance, offensive and defensive, was hastily concluded 
with France. Edward cited the king of Scots before his court, 
to be held at Newcastle upon Tyne, in the beginning of March, 
1296. Had Baliol obeyed the summons, he would have found 
himself in the midst of an army of forty thousand men ; but his 
barons were careful to keep him secluded in the Highlands, and 
made the most active preparations for the invasion of England. 
The English army invested Berwick ; the next day it was carried 
by assault, and seven thousand men perished in the massacre. 
For this loss the Scots consoled themselves with the destruction 
of Corbridge and Hexham, and Baliol sent to the English mo- 



1296 A. D.] EDWARD THE FIRST. 185 

narch a formal renunciation of homage. Scotland was soon sub- 
dued, and Baliol met the deputies of his conqueror, and expressed 
his sorrow for his alliance with the French king, and for his 
rebellion against his liege lord. But this did not remove the 
resolution of the king of England. Baliol had re- BaIiol is deprived 
fused to hold Scotland of Edward; he was there- of his crown, 
fore deemed unworthy to recover it, and was compelled to sign 
at Kincardin an instrument, in which he acknowledged the right 
of Edward to enter into possession of Scotland. Edward appointed 
the Tower of London for his residence, and granted to him the 
full liberty of a circle of twenty miles round the walls of the city. 
Baliol soon retired to France, by Edward's permission, and died 
in 1305. 

At this period Scotland owed little to the exertions of her 
nobles. It was an individual* hitherto unknown, the youngest 
son of a country gentleman, who kindled and nourished the flame 
of Scottish patriotism. William Wallace was 
born in the neighborhood of Paisley. He had 
committed murder; he fled from the pursuit of justice to the 
woods, and there was joined by men of similar fortunes. There 
was another leader of outlaws, Sir William Douglas, who had 
been made prisoner at Berwick, and had received both liberty 
and a grant of his property, from the generosity of Edward. He 
joined with Wallace in an attempt to surprise at Scone the chief 
justiciary, Ormsby, who lost his treasures, but saved himself by 
flight. Animated by their example, other independent chieftains 
arose in different counties, and assaulted the English. The stew- 
ard of Scotland and the bishop of Glasgow determined to collect 
these parties into one body, and invited the different leaders to 
rally round them. The summons was obeyed by Wallace and 
Douglas, by Sir Alexander Lindsay, Sir Andrew Moray, and Sir 
Richard Lundy. The younger Bruce, earl of Carrick, was so- 



* It appeared to many that Dr. Lingard wrote too disparagingly of Wallace. 
In reply to observations on this subject, the historian, in the preface to the last 
edition of his works, states that all the light which twenty years' additional 
examination of Scottish annals, by various writers, had thrown upon the mat- 
ter in dispute, had failed to prove his estimate of the character of Wallace 
incorrect. 

M 16* 



-T 



186 I^STORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1298. 

licited to support their cause. He knew not how to decide, but 
at last hastened with his retainers to the camp of the patriots. 

Edward had now undertaken the recovery of Guienne; nor 

could he be diverted from his object by the danger of losing 

Scotland. He cherished the hope that his deputy might be able 

to put down the insurgents. Two armies were formed, one on 

The English ar-.the eastern, the other on the western coast. The 

my led into Scot- , , ___ T . . 

land. latter, under Henry Lord .Percy and Sir liobert 

Clifford, discovered the Scots near Irvine, on the right bank of 
the river. But the ardor of the patriots had been chilled by the 
dissensions of their chieftains, and they all abandoned the cause 
except Wallace and Moray. 

The king's general, Warenne, with a numerous army, reached 
the town of Stirling. "Wallace and Moray assembled all their 
forces behind the hills in the neighborhood of Cambuskenneth. 
Warenne ordered the English to cross the Forth by a bridge, 
which was so narrow that no more than two armed men could 
march over it at the same time. Wallace at a distance watched 
The success of tne i r movements ; and as soon as he saw about five 
Wallace. thousand horse and foot on the left bank of the 

river, ordered his followers to pour down from the heights. All 
who had crossed, with very few exceptions, fell by the sword, or 
perished in the river. Warenne withdrew as speedily as possible 
into England. Wallace and Moray now styled themselves " the 
generals of John, king of Scotland •" they crossed the borders 
and ravaged the open country in Northumberland and Cumber- 
land. 

From this period we lose sight of Moray. His associate, Wal- 
lace, appears alone on the scene, as " the guardian of the king- 
dom, and general of the ai-mies of Scotland," under which title 
he summoned a parliament to meet at Perth. But he had now 
reached the meridian of his greatness — and his fall was even 
more rapid than his rise. As long as the attention of the king 
was directed to the recovery of his transmarine dominions, Wal- 
lace had triumphed. But Edward, as soon as he was freed from 
all danger on the part of the French monarch, landed at Sand- 
wich, met his parliament at York, and repaired to Roxburgh, 
where he found himself at the head of eight thousand horse, and 
eighty thousand foot, principally Irish and Welsh. Wallace with 



1303 A. D.] EDWARD THE FIRST. 187 

his Scots lay in the forest of Falkirk : here he Wallace is dcfeat- 

,-,-,, -i , n -ly.-i-n ed in the forest of 

engaged Edward s army, and was defeated. From Falkirk, 
twenty to forty thousand Scots are said to have perished. "Wal- 
lace himself escaped. But his sun had now set for ever — he 
hastened to resign his office of guardian, and spent the rest of 
his life a wanderer in the forests. 

After his victory, Edward traversed Scotland in different direc- 
tions ; but the impossibility of procuring provisions for his army 
compelled him to return to England. William 

-r, ,., „ ~. , )t»i -r-» Edward returns 

Lamberton, bishop of St. Andrew s, Robert Bruce, to England. 
earl of Carrick, and John Comyn the younger, were appointed a 
council of regency, to govern in the name of Baliol. The regents 
despatched envoys to Rome, who interested the pope in their fa- 
vor. They referred their quarrel with the king of England to 
his decision. The pontiff interfered, and a letter was written to 
Edward, in which the former expressed his hope that the king, 
desisting from an unjust aggression, would set at liberty thg 
bishops, clergy, and natives of Scotland, whom he held in cap- 
tivity. He concluded by reserving to his own decision every con- 
troversy pending between England and Scotland. 

Edward refused to acknowledge the pope as a judge, but was 
willing to explain his right to him as a friend. A long letter was 
written, in which he enumerated every instance which he could 
collect, of homage done by the kings of Scotland to the Saxon 
or Norman princes; and contended, in a tone of triumph, that 
these formed a satisfactory justification of his conduct. 

At this period, the pope had a dispute pending with Philip of 
France ; and, during the progress of this quarrel, each was anxious 
to obtain and preserve the friendship of Edward : the pontiff, 
therefore, ceased to interfere in the contest between England and 
Scotland. 

In the following year, 1303, hostilities were resumed. Edward 
passed the borders at the head of an army, with which it would 
have been folly for the Scottish patriots to con- Hostilities re- 
tend. The Scots hastened to make their peace ; !? m , e(1 . Between 

. e r ' England and Scot- 

and, alter some consultation, a very comprehensive land, 
treaty was concluded between Edward and Comyn, the Scottish 
guardian. All the Scotch accepted the conditions of peace, ex- 
cept Wallace, who preferred the life of an outlaw, his original 



188 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1305. 



profession, and endeavored to elude the vigilance of his enemies 
among his native forests and mountains, and Sir William Oli- 
phant, who defended Stirling for ninety days, when he at last 
surrendered to Edward. The successful siege of Stirling coni- 
Waiiace is taken pleted the reduction of Scotland. Wallace was 

prisoner, and exe- ,, . „ ., -,-, •.. . , TT 

cuted. soon the prisoner ot the English monarch. He 

was surprised, it is said, in his bed, by Sir John Monteith, and 
in a few days he stood at the bar in Westminster-hall, with a 
wreath of laurel round his brow, in derision of a prediction at- 
tributed to him, that he would one day be crowned at Westmin- 
ster. The king had already appointed a commission of five jus- 
tices, not to preside at the trial, but to pronounce judgment after 
a certain form which had been sent to them. Wallace was sen- 
tenced and led to execution on the 23d of August, 1305. 

The countrymen of Wallace revered him as the protomartyr 
of their independence ; his blood animated them to vengeance ; 
^le huts and glens, the forests and mountains which he had fre- 
quented became consecrated in their eyes; and as the remem- 
brance of his real exploits gradually faded, the aid of fiction was 
employed to embellish and eternize the character of the hero. 
If we may believe the Scottish writers who lived a century or 
two after his death, he was gigantic in stature, powerful of limb, 
and patient of fatigue beyond his contemporaries. 

The character of " 

Wallace. He knew no passion but the love of his country. 

His soul was superior to bribery or insult; and at the call of 
liberty he was as ready to serve in the ranks as to assume the 
command of the army. His courage possessed a talismanic 
power, which led his followers to attempt and execute the most 
hazardous enterprises; and which on Stainmore compelled the 
king and army of England to flee from his presence, even before 
they entered upon action. Under so brave and accomplished a 
leader, Scotland might have been saved. She was lost through 
the jealousy of her nobles, who chose to crouch in chains to a 
foreign despot rather than owe their deliverance to a man of in- 
ferior family ! Of all this a part may perhaps be true, but much 
is contradicted by history. 

To settle the government of his late acquisition, Edward sum- 
moned a Scottish parliament at Perth, in which ten commissioners 
were chosen to confer with the king in person at London. The 



1305 A. D.] EDWARD THE FIRST. 189 



result of their deliberation was, that John de 

t-. -ni i) i liii -i Tne parliament 

Bretagne, Edward s nephew, should be appointed at Perth, 
guardian of the realm, with the aid of the present chamberlain 
and chancellor, both Englishmen ; and that, for the better ad- 
ministration of justice, Scotland should be divided into four 
districts. 

Having carried our narrative so far respecting Scotland, we 
must now go back a little in time, to consider some other portions 
of Edward's reign. To support the expense of his oppressive taxa- 
various wars, Edward had recourse to a system of tion - 
oppressive taxation. By the people, however, at last preparations 
were made for resistance to his exactions. Edward had (in 1297) 
assembled two bodies of troops, with one of which he intended to 
sail to Flanders, the other he destined to reinforce the army in 
Guienne. At Salisbury he gave the command of the latter to 
Bohun earl of Hereford, the constable, and to Bigod earl of Nor- 
folk, the marshal of England ; but both of these noblemen refused 
the appointment, on the alleged ground, that by their office they 
were bound only to attend on the king's person. Edward, in a 
paroxysm of rage, addressing himself to the marshal, exclaimed, 
with an oath : " Sir earl, you shall go or hang." " Sir king," 
replied Bigod, also with an oath, " I will neither go nor hang." 
Hereford and Norfolk immediately departed, and arranged a plan 
of resistance to the royal exactions. Edward appointed a new 
constable and marshal ; and, to divide and weaken his opponents, 
sought to appease the clergy, and to move the commiseration of 
the people. He received the primate with kindness, ordered the 
restoration of his lands, which had been confiscated, and named 
him one of the council to Prince Edward, whom Edward endea- 

, i , • , i r\ i ./> i r TOrs to conciliate 

he had appointed regent. On a plattorm betore the people. 
the entrance of Westminster hall, accompanied by his son, the 
archbishop, and the earl of Warwick, he harangued the people. 
He owned that the burdens which he had laid on them were 
heavy ; but protested that it had not been less painful to him to 
impose than it had been to others to bear them. " Behold," he 
concluded, " I am going to expose myself to danger for you. If 
I return, receive me again, and I will make you amends ; if I fall, 
here is my son ; place him on the throne, and his gratitude shall 
reward your fidelity." At these words, the king burst into tears; 



190 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1299 



the archbishop was equally affected ; the contagion ran through 
the multitude ; and shouts of loyalty and approbation persuaded 
Edward that he might still depend on the allegiance of his people. 
This exhibition was followed by writs to the sheriffs, ordering 
them to protect the clergy from injury, and to maintain them in 
the possession of their lands. 

He now ventured to proceed as far as Winchelsea on his way 
to Flanders. Here a paper was put into his hands, purporting to 

National remon- be a national remonstrance. It complained that 
strance. t ne last royal summons had called on the people 

to accompany the king to Flanders, a country in which they were 
not bound to serve ; that even if they were, they had been so im- 
poverished by taxation as to be unable to bear the expense ; and 
that to undertake an expedition to Flanders in the existing cir- 
cumstances was imprudent ; since it would expose the kingdom 
without protection to the inroads of the Welsh and Scots. Ed- 
ward replied, that he could return no answer on matters of such 
high importance without the advice of his council, a part of which 
had already sailed for Flanders. 

At length the king sailed, accompanied by the barons and 
knights who had espoused his cause ; and, two days later, Bohun 

Bohun ana Bigod and Bigod with a numerous retinue proceeded to 
:nequer. the Exchequer. The constable, in presence of the 

treasurer and judges, complained of the king's extortions, and 
forbade them, in the name of the baronage of England, to levy 
the last tax which had been granted by the great council. From 
the Exchequer they rode to the Guildhall, where they called upon 
the citizens to join in the common cause. The citizens gave 
assurance of their co-operation to the barons, who immediately 
retired to their respective counties. 

The king was soon informed of these proceedings, and ordered 
the barons of the Exchequer to disregard the prohibition. But 

Edward com- in & few weeks his obstinacy was subdued by a 
thedemandfofthe succession of untoward events. The people and 
earls - clergy universally favored the cause of the carls ; 

the Scots, after their victory at Stirling, had burst into the 
northern counties ; and Edward himself lay at Ghent in Flanders, 
unable to return to the protection of the kingdom, and too weak 
to face the superior force of the French king. In these circum- 



1305 A. D.] EDWARD THE FIRST. 191 

stances, the lords who composed the council of the young prince 
summoned a parliament. In the conferences which followed, 
several very valuable additions were made to the national charters 
The most important of these was one by which the crown re- 
linquished the claim of levying taxes without the consent of the 
nation. In return, an aid in money was granted both from the 
clergy and laity, and a common letter was written to the king, 
assuring him that his faithful barons were ready at his word to 
join him in Flanders, or to march against his enemies in Scotland; 
but requiring at the same time, and in a tone of defiance, his ratifi- 
cation of the acts clone by his son against the sixth day of Decem- 
ber. With a reluctant hand, Edward signed the confirmation of 
the two charters with the additional articles, and a separate par- 
don for the earls and their followers. 

As soon as an armistice had been concluded between him and 
the king of France, Edward returned to England. When he met 
his parliament at York, the earls of Hereford and Edward mee ts 
Norfolk required that he should ratify his confirma- his parliament, 
tion of the charters. He stated as an objection, the necessity of 
hastening to oppose the Scots, solemnly promised to comply with 
their request on his return, and brought forward the bishop of 
Durham and three earls, who swore "on his soul" that he should 
fulfil his engagements. The victory of Falkirk and a long series 
of successes gave a lustre to his arms ; still, when the parliament 
assembled the next year, he was reminded of his promise ; and at 
last he ratified his former concessions, but with the addition of a 
clause, which, by saving the rights of the crown, virtually annulled 
every provision in favor of the subject. Bohun and Bigod in- 
stantly departed with their adherents ; and the king, to ascertain 
the sentiments of the people, ordered the sheriffs to assemble the 
citizens in the cemetery of St. Paul's, and to read to them the 
new confirmation of the charters. The reading of the document 
was repeatedly interrupted by shouts of approbation ; but when 
the illusory clause was recited, the air rang with expressions of 
discontent, and curses were poured on the head of the prince who 
had thus disappointed the expectations of his people. Edward 
took the alarm, summoned a new parliament to meet him in three 
weeks, and granted every demand. He afterward, 

, , . , , Edward grants 

however, sent deputies to the pope to ask the pon- every demand. 



192 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1305. 



tiff to annul the concessions which he had made. The pope de 
clared all such concessions invalid ; but this declaration proceeded 
on the supposition that the concessions were contrary to the rights 
of the crown, and was accompanied with a clause saving to the 
king's subjects the rights of which they were previously in pos- 
session. Whether it were that with these limitations the papal 
rescript did not fully meet the king's wishes, or that he was in- 
timidated by the .rebellion of the Scots, he made no public use of 
its contents; but suffered the concessions, galling as they were, 
to remain on the statute roll at his death, and to descend to future 
sovereigns as the recognised law of the land. Thus, after a long 
struggle, was won from an able and powerful monarch the most 
valuable of the privileges enjoyed by the commons of England at 
the present day. If we arc indebted to the patriotism of Cardinal 
Langton, and the barons at Runnymede, the framers of the great 
charter, we ought equally to revere the memory of Archbishop 
Winchelsea, and the earls of Hereford and Norfolk. The former 
erected barriers against the abuse of the sovereign authority ; the 
latter fixed the liberties of the subject on a sure and permanent 
foundation. 

Notwithstanding the instances of oppression which we have 
mentioned, Edward has obtained the name of the English Jus- 
tinian, from the improvements which were made during his reign 
in the national code, and the administration of justice ; improve- 
ments for which his people were perhaps as much indebted to his 
necessities as his wisdom ; since they were always granted at the 
request of his parliament, and purchased with the vote of a valua- 
ble aid. 

It had employed Edward thirteen years to forge the fetters of 
Scotland ; in less than sis months she was again free. To under- 
Seotiand again stand this important revolution, we must advert to 
free ' the rival houses of Baliol and Bruce. Baliol was 

dead ; and before his death he had more than once renounced for 
himself and his posterity all right to the crown. As the renun- 
ciation had been made in captivity, and was the effect of com- 
pulsion, it would probably have been disregarded by the Scots; 
but his only son was a prisoner in the Tower of London, and the 
task of supporting the rights of the family devolved on the nest 
heir, John Comyn of Badenoch, the son of Marjory, Baliol's 



130G A. D.] EDWARD THE FIRST. 193 



sister, a nobleman already distinguished by his efforts to recover 
the independence of his country. From the fatal battle of Fal- 
kirk to the last expedition of Edward, he directed as guardian the 
councils of Scotland. To the king of England he had long been 
an object of peculiar jealousy; at the late pacification a sentence 
of temporary banishment was pronounced against him ; and though 
that sentence had been recalled, he had still been fined in thrice 
the amount of his yearly income. 

Scotland again (in 1306) demanded Edward's attention. The 
pretensions of Robert Bruce, the original competitor for the crown, 
had descended to his grandson, of the same name, and about 
twenty-three years of age. 

It chanced that Comyn (another aspirant to the Scotch throne, 
as being the nephew of Baliol) and Bruce arrived at Dumfries 
about the same time, in the year 1306, probably comyn killed by 
to meet the justiciaries who were holding their Bruc e- 
court in the town. Bruce requested a private conference with 
Comyn in the choir of the church of the Minorites. They met ; 
the conversation grew warm ; Bruce plunged his dirk into the 
breast of Comyn, and one of his followers completed the murder. 
Edward was rather irritated than alarmed at the intelligence. 
Orders were sent to his lieutenant, Aymar de Valence, earl of 
Pembroke, to chastise the presumption of Bruce. The king 
vowed that he would revenge the death of Comyn ; and conjured 
his nobles, in the event of his own death in the expedition, to keep 
his body unburied till they had enabled his son to accomplish his 
vow. The son swore that he would not sleep two nights in the 
same place till he had entered Scotland to execute his father's 
commands. The prince of Wales with his knights companions, 
departed for the borders ; Edward followed by easy journeys ; and 
his military tenants received writs to join him at Carlisle. 

Bruce, by the murder of Comyn, had staked his life ; he could 
save it only by winning a sceptre. He assumed the title of king, 
summoned the Scots to his standard, and was : 
crowned without any opposition at Scone. Bruce the title of king 
and his followers were soon defeated by a relative of Comyn. He 
embarked in a small ship, steered to the north of Ireland, and, in 
the unfrequented Island of Rathlin, buried himself during the 
winter from the knowledge and the pursuit of his enemies. 

17 



assumes 



194 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1307. 



About the end of winter, Bruce and his followers issued from 
their retreat. His brothers were defeated, but he was more 
fortunate. He sailed to Scotland, surprised the English in the 
vicinity of Turnberry, and hastened for security to the hills and 
forests. By degrees he was joined by his former vassals, and 
gained some advantages. 

To Edward, the success of his antagonist, trifling as it was, 
became a continued source of vexation. In July he felt a marked 
Death of Ed- improvement in his health, and ordered the army 
ward, a. D. 1307. to advance into Scotland. But the very exertion 
of mounting on his horse threw him back into his former state of 
weakness ; his progress in four days was confined to six miles ; 
and the next evening he expired at the Burg-on-the-Sands, in the 
sixty-ninth year of his age, and the thirty-fifth of his reign. 

Edward was twice married. His first wife was Eleanor of 
Castile, who bore to Edward four sons and eleven daughters, of 
whom several died in their infancy, and not more 
than three are known to have survived their father. 
Her death happened at Hardley, near Lincoln, in 1290. The 
king's affection induced him to follow the funeral to Westminster, 
and to erect, wherever the corpse rested for the night, a magnifi- 
cent cross to her memory. Some of these crosses still remain, 
and are of considerable elegance. His second wife was Margaret 
of France, by whom he had a daughter, who died in her infancy, 
and two sons, who survived him. 

Edward was tall, but well-proportioned. In temper he was 
warm and irascible, impatient of injury, and reckless of danger; 
but his anger might be disarmed by submission, 
and his temerity seemed to be justified by success. 
He aspired to unite in himself the sovereignty of the whole island 
of Great Britain. Nor was he entirely disappointed : Wales was 
incorporated with England; and the independence of Scotland 
sought an asylum in the midst of morasses, forests, and moun- 
tains. The subjugation of the former, and the attempt to sub- 
jugate the latter, comprised, as we have seen, the most interesting 
occurrences of his reien. 



1307 A. D.] EDWARD THE SECOND. 195 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. 


Germany. 


France. 


Clement V. 




Philip IV. 


John XXII. 


Albert. 


Louis X. 




Henry VII. 


Philip V. 




Louis IV. 


Charles IV. 


Scotland. 




Spain. 


Robert I. 




Ferdinand IV 
Alphonso XL 



Coronation of Edward — War in Scotland — Battle at Bannockburn — Bruce in- 
vades Ireland — Truce with Scotland — War with his Barons — The Queen 
makes war on the King — The King is deposed and murdered. — From A. D. 
1307 to 1327. 

Of the six sons of the late king, three had preceded him to the 
grave. The eldest of the survivors, three-and-twenty years of 
age, bore the name, but inherited little of the cha- 
racter of his father. From his childhood, he had 
lived in habits of intimacy with Piers de Gaveston, who possessed 
a taste for dissipation and pleasure ; as they advanced in age, the 
attachment of their early years increased. The king frequently 
reprehended the excesses of the heir-apparent ; and about three 
months before his death, he made Gaveston abjure the kingdom, 
and exacted from his son a promise upon oath that he would 
never recall his favorite without the royal consent. Affairs re- 
quired the presence of the young prince in London ; but before 
he departed from Carlisle, Edward sent for him to his bedside, 
commanded him to prosecute the Scottish war, and to carry 
his dead bones along with the army to the very extremity of 
Scotland. Soon after, the king died ; and his commands, no less 
than his advice, were forgotten. His successor hastened from the 
capital to the borders, received at Carlisle the homage of the 
English, at Dumfries that of the Scottish barons, and at the head 
of a gallant army advanced in pursuit of Robert Bruce. But war 



196 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1307. 



had few attractions for the young Edward. He halted at Cum- 
nock, in Ayrshire; and, under pretence of making preparations 
for his marriage and coronation, hastily returned into England. 

The first object of the new king had been the recall of his fa- 
vorite, on whom, during his absence, he had conferred the title 
Edward recalls of earl of Cornwall. He was made lord chamber- 
makIs V hTm te eari n o d f lain j affianced to the king's niece, and, when Ed- 
Comwaii. - ward prepared to sail to France, appointed regent 
of the kingdom, with all those powers which the sovereign on 
such occasions was accustomed to reserve to himself. 

Edward landed at Boulogne, where he found Philip le Bel, 
king of France. He did homage for Cuienne and Ponthieu, and the 
next day, in the presence of four kings and three queens, married 
Isabella, to whom he had been contracted four years before, the 
daughter of the French monarch, and reputed the most beautiful 
woman in Europe. A few days were given to f eastings and re- 
joicings; and on his return, Edward was accompanied or fol- 

Coronation of lowed by the two uncles of his bride. The corona- 
Edward. ^ on wag p er f orme d with extraordinary magni- 
ficence; but outward expressions of joy accorded ill with the 
discontent which secretly rankled in the breasts of the more 
powerful nobles. 

The barons assembled at Westminster, and sent to Edward a 

petition for the redress of abuses, and the immediate banishment 

The barons as- of the favorite. He promised to return an answer 

semble at West , .. , , . . -, _, ' n . 

minster. m the parliament to be held atter faster, and in 

the meantime endeavored, but in vain, to mollify their resent- 
ment. At the parliament, their demands were renewed in terms 
which admitted of neither refusal nor procrastination; letters 
patent were accordingly issued ; Gaveston himself was compelled 
to leave England ; but his enemies had scarcely time to felicitate 
themselves on his downfall, when, to their surprise and indigna- 
tion, they learned that he had assumed, by royal appointment, 
the government of Ireland. 

In Ireland, Gaveston displayed the magnificence of a prince, 

and distinguished himself in several successful engagements with 

Gaveston in ire- the natives. In England, the king assembled his 

Iand - parliament, and solicited supplies. The commons 

appended to their vote the unprecedented demand that their peti- 



1310 A. D.] EDWARD THE SECOND. 197 

tion for the redress of grievances should be previously granted. 
He promised to take the demand into consideration, dismissed the 
commons, and ordered the lords to attend him three months later 
at Stamford. 

During the prorogation, the great object of the king had been 
to procure the return of Gaveston, without whose company he ap- 
peared to consider life a burden. By condescension and liberality 
he broke the union of the barons, and attached some of the more 
powerful to his own party. He ordered the favorite to return, 
flew to Chester to receive him, and conducted him to Stamford. 
There the prelates and barons had assembled, to give their advice 
respecting the petitions of the commons in the preceding session. 
At their request he assented to every article, and obtained from 
them a grant and their consent that Gaveston might remain in 
England. Gaveston, once more in possession of the ascendency, 
indulged in all his former extravagance. 

At length the exhausted state of the treasury compelled Ed- 
ward to convoke a council at York ; but the principal barons re- 
fused to attend, under the pretence that they were afraid of 
Gaveston. Edward prevailed on Gaveston to withdraw to some 
secret asylum, and called a parliament to meet at parliament at 
Westminster. The barons obeyed; but their Westminster, 
leaders came attended by their retainers in arms. Edward soon 
found himself completely in their power, and reluctantly con- 
sented to the appointment of a committee of peers, who should 
redress the grievances of the nation. 

The committee sat in London. Edward was glad to withdraw 
from their presence, and summoned his military retainers to fol- 
low him into Scotland. Out of ten earls, three Edward invades 
only joined him ; and of these, one was Gaveston. Scotland - 
In Scotland, the king penetrated as far as the Forth without 
finding an enemy. He passed the winter at Berwick, and in the 
spring ordered Gaveston, at the head of the army, to resume the 
war; but the caution of Bruce allowed him no opportunity of 
gaining laurels. The time approached when it was necessary 
for Edward to meet his parliament, and the king proceeded to 
London. The barons demanded that all grants which had been 
made by Edward in favor of Gaveston should be revoked ; that 
the king should not leave the kingdom, or levy war without the 

17* 



198 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1310. 



consent of the barons ; that the new taxes on wool, cloth, wine, 
and other merchandise, should be abolished ; that Gaveston should 
be banished for ever ; and that to prevent delay in the adminis- 
tration of justice, parliaments should be holden at least once, and 
if need should be, oftener than once every year. Edward ob- 
jected, complained, and entreated; but the barons were positive 
and inexorable ; and the king, after a long struggle, consented to 
sign and publish the ordinances. Gaveston landed in France ; 
but Edward and he soon joined each other at York, and a royal 
proclamation followed, stating that the favorite had returned in 
obedience to the king's orders. 

Among the English nobility, the most powerful was Thomas, 
the grandson of Henry III., who united in his possession the five 
Death of Gaves- earldoms of Lancaster, Lincoln, Leicester, Salis- 
ton - bury, and Derby. The confederate barons ap- 

pointed him their leader, and he, not finding the king in York, 
hastened his march toward Newcastle. Edward embarked with 
Gaveston on board a vessel, and landed in safety at Scarborough. 
The favorite, for greater security, remained in the castle; the 
king repaired to York, and unfurled the royal banner. The un- 
fortunate Gaveston, finding the place untenable, surrendered, and 
was soon put to death. 

The first news of this event threw the king into the most vio- 
lent transports of grief, which gradually subsided into a fixed 
purpose of revenge. On his way to London, he summoned a 
parliament, solicited succors from France, and assembled a con- 
siderable body of forces. But conferences were held between the 
deputies of the king and of the barons, in the presence of the 
foreign ministers, and a form of reconciliation was unanimously 
adopted. 

It is now time to return to the affairs of Scotland. Bruce had 
obtained several advantages, and at length the news arrived that 

Aff • - n s ot- ^ ow ^ ra y> governor of Stirling, had consented to 
land. surrender that important fortress, if it were not 

relieved before the feast of St. John the Baptist, 1314. Edward, 
apparently at peace with his own subjects, judged the opportunity 
favorable for an expedition into Scotland. A week before the 
day fixed for the surrender of Stirling, he marched from Berwick, 
whither he had proceeded, and, though the army was encumbered 



1314 A. D.] EDWARD THE SECOND. 199 

by a long train of provision wagons and military engines, reached 
the neighborhood on the eve of the festival. Bruce had em- 
ployed the time in making preparations for the combat. His 
army, consisting of thirty thousand picked men, stretched from 
the burn of Bannock, on the right, to the neighborhood of the 
castle on the left. Douglas and Stewart com- _ •„. . _ 

o Battle of Ban- 

manded the centre ; Edward Bruce took charge of nock-burn, 
the right, and Randolf of the left wing. At daybreak, Bruce' s 
soldiers gathered round an eminence on which Maurice, abbot of 
Inchaffray, celebrated mass, and harangued his hearers on the 
duty of fighting for the liberty of their country. At the close 
of his discourse, they answered with a loud shout, and the abbot, 
barefoot, with a crucifix in his hand, marched before them to the 
field of battle. The Scots, with very few exceptions, fought on 
foot, armed with battle-axes and spears. The king appeared in 
their front, and bore the same weapons as his subjects. The at- 
tack was made by the infantry and archers of the English army, 
and so fierce was the shock, so obstinate the resistance, that the 
result long remained doubtful. Bruce was compelled to call his 
reserve into the line ; and, as a last resource, to order a small 
body of men-at-arms to attack the archers in flank. This move- 
ment decided the fate of the English infantry. They fled in con- 
fusion ; and the knights, with the earl of Gloucester at their 
head, rushed forward to renew the conflict; but their horses were 
entangled in pits, the riders were thrown, and the timely appear- 
ance of reserved Scots, who had been stationed in the valley, 
scattered dismay through the ranks of the English. Edward, 
who was not deficient in personal bravery, spurred on his charger 
to partake in the battle ; but the earl of Pembroke wisely inter- 
posed, and led him to a distance. He fled from Bannock-burn, 
with a party of Scottish cavalry at his heels, nor did he dare to 
halt till the earl of March admitted him within the walls of Dun- 
bar, whence he proceeded by sea to England. His privy seal and 
treasures, with the military engines, and provisions for the army, 
fell into the hands of the conquerors. Bruce thought it was a 
favorable moment to propose a treaty between the two nations ; 
but when Edward refused him the title of king, the indignant 
Scot put an end to the negotiation, called his parliament, and 
proceeded to settle the succession. His only child was an un- 



200 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1315. 



married daughter, called Marjory ; and, to avoid the dangers 
which, in the present circumstances, might attend the reign of a 
female, it was ordained, with her consent, that if the king died 
without leaving a son, the crown should go to his brother Ed- 
ward Bruce, and the heirs male of his body, failing whom it 
should revert to Marjory and her descendants. 

But the Scots were not content with asserting their own inde- 
pendence ; they undertook to free Ireland from the English yoke. 
The Scots invade ^ nat island was now divided between two races of 
Ireland. men, of different languages, habits, and laws, and 

animated with the most deadly hatred toward each other. The 
more wild and mountainous districts, and the larger portions of 
Connaught and Ulster, were occupied by the natives ; the Eng- 
lish had established themselves along the eastern and southern 
coasts, and in all the principal cities and towns. By the Irish 
the efforts of the Scots were viewed with a kindred feeling. The 
patriots were fighting against the same nation by which they had 
been so cruelly oppressed. They were of the same lineage, spoke 
a dialect of the same tongue, and retained in many respects the 
same national institutions. When intelligence arrived of the vic- 
tory at Bannock-burn, it was received with enthusiasm, and the 
conviction that the English were not invincible awakened a hope 
that Ireland might recover her independence. Edward disco- 
vered that an active correspondence was carried on between the 
men of Ulster and the court of Bruce. Alarmed for the safety 
of his Irish dominions, he despatched the escheator, the Lord 
Ufford, with instructions to treat with the native chieftains, the 
tenants of the crown, and the corporations of the boroughs ; but, 
before that nobleman could execute his commission, Edward 
Bruce, the brother of the king of Scots, with an army of six 
thousand men, had landed in the neighborhood of Carrickfergus. 
He was immediately joined by the O'Nials, who directed his march. 
They burnt Dundalk, and the greater part of Louth was laid deso- 
late. But the approach of Butler the lord deputy and of the earl 
of Ulster warned the confederates to return. They retired, and 
Bruce, continuing his retreat, despatched the earl of Moray to 
Scotland for reinforcements. When they arrived, he penetrated 
as far as Kildare, defeated the English at Arscol in that county, 
and, as he returned, obtained a second victory at Kenlys, in 



1316 A. D.] EDWARD THE SECOND. . 201 

Meath. His presence animated the Irish of Leinster. ' The 
O'Tooles, O'Briens, O'Carrols, and Archbolds were instantly in 
arms; Arklow, Newcastle, and Bree were burnt; and the open 
country presented one continued scene of anarchy and devasta- 
tion. A treaty was concluded between Edward Bruce and 
Donald O'Nial, called in Edward's writs prince of Tyrone, but 
who styled himself hereditary monarch of Ireland. By letters 
patent, the rights of O'Nial were transferred to Bruce, who was 
immediately crowned, and entered on the exercise of the regal 
power. 

At Athenree, the English troops were successful ; but to balance 
the exultation caused by this victory, intelligence was brought to 
Dublin that Robert Bruce, the king of Scotland, The success and 

. . . _ . . final defeat of the 

had landed with a numerous army in Ulster. Ine Scots in Ireland, 
garrison of Carrickfergus, after a most obstinate defence, was com- 
pelled to surrender. The two brothers, at the head of twenty 
thousand men, Scots and Irish, advanced into the more southern 
counties, and the citizens of Dublin were compelled to burn the 
suburbs for their own protection. But the Scots, unprepared to 
besiege the place, ravaged the country. They successively en- 
camped at Leixlip, Naas, and Callen; and at last penetrated as 
far as the vicinity of Limerick. But it was the depth of winter ; 
numbers perished, through want, fatigue, and the inclemency of 
the season; and the English had assembled an army at Kilkenny 
to intercept their return. "With difficulty the Bruces eluded the 
vigilance of the enemy, and retired, by Cashel, Kildare, and Trim, 
into Ulster. It is not easy to assign the reason of this romantic 
expedition, undertaken at such a season, and without any pros- 
pect of permanent conquest. To the Scots it was more destruc- 
tive than a defeat; and Robert Bruce, dissatisfied with his Irish 
expedition, hastened back to his native dominions. Soon after- 
ward, Edward Bruce advanced to the neighborhood of Dundalk. 
He was met by John, Lord Birmingham, and fell in battle, with 
the greater part of his forces. "With Bruce fell the hopes of the 
Irish patriots; the ascendency of the English was restored, and 
the ancient system of depredation and revenge universally revived. 
About this period, England suffered severely from famine and 
pestilence. The Scotch resumed hostilities, and 

r ' The Scotch re- 

the pope sent legates to proclaim a truce. Bruce sume hostilities. 



•20-2 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1316. 



refused to obey, as he was not styled king, and besieged Berwick. 
The town -was taken by surprise, and after a few days tbe eastle 
surrendered. The fall of Berwick was followed by the reduction 
of "\Yaik, Ilarbottle, and Mitford ; Northallerton, Boroughbridge, 
Scarborough, and Skipton were burnt; and Ripon would have 
experienced the same fate, had it not been redeemed by the pay- 
ment o( a thousand marks. 

It was evident that Bruce owed the success which had so long 
attended his arms, not to any superior prowess or skill, but to the 
dissension which continued to rage between Edward and his barons. 
The loss of Berwick opened the eyes both of Edward and of his 
opponents to the disastrous consequences of their quarrel. The 
chancellor, by order of the king, repeatedly visited the earl of 
Lancaster ; by mutual consent commissioners were appointed ; 
and at last, in a meeting at Leek, a plan of reconciliation was 
a truce conclu- adopted. Soon afterward, a truce for two 3-ears 

iU\l between Kd- -i-i-ii -ni -ii-r* 

ward and Bruce, was concluded between Edward and Bruce. 

This suspension of hostilities was employed by the king of 
Scotland in causing a letter, signed by eight earls and thirty-one 
The kite's letter barons, iu the name of the commonalty of Scot- 
t0 Uu ' 1 land, to be sent to the pope. This instrument 

requested the pontiff to employ his influence with the king of 
England, aud advise him to be content with his own dominions, 
and to leave to the Scots their own barren soil, the most remote 
of habitable lands, but which was dear to them because it was 
their own. and which it was their only object to possess in peace. 
To the king of England the pope wrote a letter of advice, and 
earnestly exhorted him to improve the present opportunity, and 
conclude a useful and lasting peace. Edward assented; com- 
missioners from the pope aud king of France were appointed to 
attend the congress ; and hopes were confidently entertained of a 
favorable result. But the conferences, if any were held, proceeded 
slowly ; the king of England was too much occupied with the re- 
bellion of his barons to attend to other concerns ; and Bruce ex- 
pected to obtain better terms by aiding the rebels than by treaty 
with the sovereign. 

Edward now had another favorite, a young man whose name 
was Hugh Spcuser, and who, by his talents and 

The SFena-rs. assiduity, had acquired the esteem of his sovereign. 



1318 A. D.] EDWARD THE SECOND. 203 

His growing opulence awakened the jealousy of the nobles. A 
movement took place against Spenser and his father. The elder 
Spenser, whose fate was thus connected with that of his son, was 
one of the most powerful barons, far advanced in age, whose only 
crime seems to have been his near relationship to the favorite, 
and his influence in the king's council. Lancaster led the con- 
federates toward the capital, allowing them to live at free quar- 
ters on their march, and to plunder the estates belonging to the 
elder Spenser. From St. Alban's he sent a message to Edward, 
requiring the banishment of the father and son, and an act of in- 
demnity for the confederate barons. The king replied, with 
spirit, that the elder Spenser was beyond the sea, employed in 
his service — the younger with his fleet, guarding the cinque ports; 
that he would never punish the accused before they had an oppor- 
tunity of answering their accusers ; and that it was contrary to 
the obligation of his coronation oath to pardon men who disturbed 
the tranquillity of his kingdom. 

The parliament was now sitting at Westminster ; and Lancas- 
ter, advancing to London, cantoned his followers in the neighbor- 
hood of Holborn and Clerkenwell. The confederates The s pc nsers ao 

. . , . , , cused and banish- 

spent a fortnight in consultations. At length, ed. 
they proceeded to Westminster, filled the hall with armed men, 
and, without informing the king of their intentions, ordered a 
paper to be read. It was an act of accusation against the Spen- 
sers, consisting of eleven counts, charging them with usurping the 
royal power, and sentencing them to exile. Against this sen- 
tence the prelates protested in writing, but the king and the 
barons of his party, intimidated by the armed men in attendance, 
gave their assent ; the banishment of the two Spensers was duly 
entered on the rolls ; and a general pardon was granted to Lan- 
caster and his associates. 

The king felt the indignity which had been offered to his au- 
thority, and two months did not elapse before he had the oppor- 
tunity of revenging it. The queen, on her way to The king reven . 
Canterbury, proposed to lodge during the night in & es the ^dignity. 
one of the royal castles. The custody of the castle had been 
intrusted by Edward to the Lord Badlesmere. He was absent, 
but the Lady Badlesmere refused admission to the queen, and 
during the altercation several of the royal attendants were killed. 



204 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



[A. D. 1322 



Isabella complained loudly of this insult ; the chivalrous feelings 
of the nation were aroused ; and the king found himself in a con 
dition to demand and enforce redress. Edward took the castle, 
hanged Colepepper, the governor, and eleven of his knights, sent 
the others to different prisons, and confined in the Tower the Lady 
Badlesmere and her female attendants. 

This act of vigor infused new life into the king's friends 
Many came forward with the offer of their services, the two 
Spensers successively returned to England, and the king gladly 
took the favorite and his father under the royal protection, till a 
parliament should assemble to repeal the sentence enacted against 
them. 

The popularity of the earl of Lancaster had been for some time 
on the decline. He joined Bruce in 1322, when the truce expired, 
Lancaster put to anc * was taken prisoner in a battle in the north of 
death. England. The captors conducted him by water to 

York, and thence to the castle of Pontefract. He was brought 
before the king, six earls, and the royal barons; of his guilt 
there could be no doubt ; he was told that it was useless to speak 
in his defence, and was condemned to death, and was beheaded. 

From Pontefract, Edward had repaired in triumph to York, 
where the parliament had assembled. All the members were, or 
pretended to be, royalists; and every measure proposed by the 
crown was carried without opposition. The petitions of the 
Spensers were heard and granted, and the award against them 
was ordered to be reversed. 

The victory which Edward had gained over his domestic ene- 
mies inspired him with the hope of wiping away the disgrace of 
Edward again in- Bannock-burn, and of re-establishing his superior- 
vades Scotland. i ty over t h e kingdom of Scotland. With this view, 
he assembled the most numerous army that England had seen for 
many years. But, after advancing as far as the Forth, he was 
compelled to return, without performing erne splendid action or 
achieving a single conquest. 

At length, the destructive war, which with a few pauses had 

continued three and twenty years, and had repeatedly involved 

Peace concluded one-half of Scotland, and the northern counties of 

between England ti-i-i.-ii'-iii i i i 

and Scotland. England, in bloodshed and misery, began to draw 

to a close. Bruce was sensible that his kingdom required a long 



1325 A. D.] EDWARD THE SECOND. 205 

interval of tranquillity to repair the havoc of so many campaigns ; 
and experience had taught Edward to doubt the ultimate success 
of any attempt to enforce his claim of superiority. The proposal 
was made by the Scots ; Bruce consented to waive the title of 
king in the treaty ; and a suspension of arms was concluded for 
thirteen years between the two nations ; to remain in force till the 
end of that term, even in the event of the death of one or of both 
of the contracting parties. 

At peace with foreign nations, and with his own subjects, Ed- 
ward might now expect to enjoy that tranquillity to which he had 
so long been a stranger. But the Lancastrian party was not ex- 
tinct, nor without the hope of rising from its ashes. There was 
one man especially, Roger, Lord Mortimer of Wigmore, whose 
activity and resentment Edward feared. He had twice been con- 
victed of treason, and twice owed his life to the clemency of the 
king. Having been taken a prisoner in battle, he was sent to the 
Tower, but escaped to France. 

■ Charles le Bel had now succeeded his brother Philip le Long 
on the throne of France. Of the real object of this prince in his 
quarrel with Edward, it is impossible to form a Charles of Franoe 

...... , . . quarrels with Ed- 

correct notion ; this only is evident, that he sought ward, 
pretexts for hostilities, and rejected the most equitable offers. He 
complained that Edward had not attended at his coronation, nor 
done him homage for Guienne. The king replied that he had 
never been summoned to do homage ; at the same time he offered 
to do homage at an appointed day, if the French army were to be 
recalled from Guienne. But Charles was inexorable, and it was 
only by the surrender of the last fortress in that province, that 
Edmund, earl of Kent, and brother to Edward, could purchase a 
truce for a few months. 

During this interval, the pontiff employed all his influence to 
restore peace, and it was artfully suggested to the papal envoys, 
that if the queen of England would visit the French The queen visits 
court, the king might grant to the solicitations of a frig^mjt^Mor- 
sister what he would withhold from an indifferent tl ™^ 
negotiator. Edward fell into the snare-.: 'Isabella proceeded to 
France with a splendid retinue ; *and a treaty was concluded on 
terms most injurious to the interests of Edward. He now began 
his journey to France, to do homage at Beauvais, but was detained 
• is 






206 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1326. 



at Dover by sickness, and sent a messenger to Charles to account 
for his delay. An answer was returned, that if Edward would 
transfer the possession of Guienne and Ponthieu to his son, 
Charles, at the prayer of Isabella, would receive the homage of 
the young prince on the same terms on which he had consented 
to receive that of the father. The offer, though it bore a suspi- 
cious aspect, was accepted ; the necessary resignations were made ; 
and the young Edward, a boy of twelve years of age, after pro- 
mising his father to hasten his return, and not to marry during 
his absence, sailed with a splendid retinue to the French coast. 
But to the general astonishment, though the ceremony was 
speedily performed, week after week passed away, and neither 
mother nor son appeared inclined to revisit England. Mortimer 
had joined Isabella at Paris; he was made the chief officer of her 
household ; and it was soon publicly reported that the daughter 
of France and cpueen of England had abandoned her husband for 
a rebel and an exile. Edward repeatedly ordered Isabella to re- 
turn, and was repeatedly disobeyed. Her designs soon began to 
unfold themselves, for levies of troops were made in her name. 
At the same time, the king of France, to distract the attention or 
multiply the perplexities of the English government, sent bodies 
of troops to make inroads into Guienne. Edward was now fully 
aware of his danger ; he wrote in strong terms to his son and to 
the king of France ; and at last declared war against the latter 
for the invasion of Guienne, and the detention of his wife and of 
the presumptive heir of his crown. Charles was induced, by a 
letter of severe but merited reproach from the pope, to dismiss 
Isabella from Paris ; but he had secretly prepared an asylum for 
her in the court of his vassal, William, count of Hainault. Here 
all her plans were matured under the direction of Mortimer. She 
signed a contract of marriage between her son Edward and Phi- 
lippa, the second daughter of the count; a body of more than 
two thousand men at arms, under John de Hainault, was placed 
at her disposal ; all the exiles of the Lancastrian faction crowded 
round her person ; and on the twenty-fourth of September she 
landed, with her followers, at Orwell in Suffolk. 

Edward's friends deserted him, and the unfortunate monarch 
knew not whom to trust. Afraid to summon the military tenants 
of the crown, he commanded the men of the neighboring counties 



1327 A. D.] 



EDWARD THE SECOND. 



207 



to come to his aid, and offered a free pardon, with a reward of a 
thousand pounds, for the head of Mortimer. 

Isabella, at her landing, was generally hailed as the deliverer 
of the country. The Lancastrian lords hastened to meet her; the 
primate supplied her with a sum of money to pay Isabella lands 
her followers ; and the king's brothers were among Edward retires, 
her adherents. At her approach toward the capital, Edward, as a 
last resource, threw himself on the loyalty and pity of the citizens. 
Their answer was cold, and Edward immediately departed, with 
the two Spensers, to the marches of Wales, where lay the estates 
of his favorite. But the Welshmen were indifferent to the distress 
of their lord and of their sovereign ; and Edward, with his favor- 
ite, took shipping for Lundy, a small isle in the mouth of the 
Bristol Channel, which had been previously fortified and plenti- 
fully stored with provisions. 

The queen was not slow to pursue her fugitive consort. She 
hastened to Bristol ; and the earl of Winchester surrendered the 
town and castle to her, but was executed by her Edward's son ap- 
followers. At Bristol, it was ascertained that of the kingdom. 
Edward had put to sea, and the prelates and barons in the queen's 
interest, assuming the powers of parliament, resolved that by the 
king's absence the realm had been left without a ruler; and 
therefore they appointed his son guardian of the kingdom, in the 
name and by the right of his father. 

Edward's evil fortune pursued him by sea as well as land. Pie 
was unable to reach the isle of Lundy ; and after contending for 
some days with a strong westerly wind, he landed Edward taken 
at Swansea, retired to Neath, and sought to elude prisoner. 
the search of his enemies. At length, Henry, earl of Leicester, 
got possession of Spenser, and Edward, it is said, immediately 
came forward, and voluntarily surrendered to his cousin, by whom 
he was sent to the strong fortress of Kenilworth. Spenser was 
arraigned at Hereford, and, as was to be expected, immediately 
put to death. 

Isabella, with Mortimer and her son, soon proceeded by slow 
journeys to meet the parliament at Westminster. The hall was 
filled with the citizens of London. Not a voice m 

The proceedings 

was raised in the king's favor. His greatest of parliament, 
friends thought it a proof of courage to remain silent. The young 



208 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1327. 



Edward was declared king by acclamation, and presented in that 
capacity to the approbation of the populace. But though the 
prince was declared king, his father had neither resigned nor been 
deposed. To remedy the defect, a bill of six articles was exhibited 
against Edward, charging him with the violation of his coronation 
oath, oppression of the church, and cruelty to the barons, and it 
was resolved that the reign of Edward of Carnarvon had ceased, 
and that the sceptre should be intrusted to the hands of his son, 
Edward of Windsor. 

The epieen pretended to lament the misfortune of her husband, 
declared that the parliament had exceeded its legitimate powers, 
Coronation of Ea- anc ^ exhorted her son to refuse a crown which be- 
wardin. longed to his father. To silence her pretended 

scruples, a deputation was instructed to proceed to Kenilworth, 
to give notice to Edward of the election of his son, and endeavor 
to procure from him a voluntary resignation of the crown. His 
answer has been differently reported by his friends and opponents. 
According to the former, he replied that no act of his could be 
deemed free, as long as he remained a prisoner. By the latter, we 
are told that he expressed his sorrow for having given such provoca- 
tion to his people. The barons declared that they renounced their 
allegiance, and Sir Thomas Blount, the steward of the household, 
as was always clone at the king's death, broke his staff of office 
and declared that all persons engaged in the royal service were 
discharged. In three days, the deputation returned from Kenil- 
worth, and the young prince was soon crowned as Edward III. 

Edward of Carnarvon was destined to add another to the long 

catalogue of princes to whom the loss of a crown has been but 

Edward is mur- the prelude to the loss of life. The attention of 

dered in Berkeley ^e ear j f L ancas ter to alleviate the sufferings of 

castle. Sept. 21, _ o 

1327. hi s captive did not accord with the views of the 

queen and Mortimer. He was given to the custody of Sir John 
de Maltravers, who, to conceal the place of Edward's residence, 
successively transferred him from Kenilworth to Corfe, Bristol, 
and Berkeley, and, by the indignities which were offered to him 
and the severities which were inflicted, labored to deprive him 
of his reason or to shorten his life. It was in vain that the de- 
posed monarch solicited an interview with his wife, or to be 
indulged with the company of his children. Thomas, Lord 



1327 A. D.] EDWARD THE SECOND. 209 

Berkeley, the owner of Berkeley castle, was soon afterward joined 
with Sir John Maltravers in the commission of guarding the 
captive monarch. It chanced that the former was detained at 
his manor of Bradley by a dangerous malady, during which the 
duty of watching the king devolved on two of his officers, Thomas 
Gournay and William Ogle. One night, while he was under 
their charge, the inmates of the castle were alarmed by the shrieks 
which issued from his apartment : the next morning the neigh- 
bouring gentry, with the citizens of Bristol, were invited to 
behold his dead body. Externally, it exhibited no marks of 
violence ; but the distortion of the features betrayed the horrible 
agonies in which he had expired; and it was confidently whispered 
that his death had been procured by the forcible introduction of 
a red-hot iron into his body. No investigation was made ; and 
the corpse was privately interred in the abbey church of St. Peter, 
in Gloucester. 

The first Edward had been in disposition a tyrant. As often 
as he dared, he had trampled on the liberties or invaded the 
property of his subjects: and yet he died in his Reflections on 

■ the preceding sec* 

bed, respected by his barons and admired by his tion. 
contemporaries. His son, the second Edward, was of a less im- 
perious character; no acts of injustice or oppression were imputed 
to him by his greatest enemies ; yet he was deposed from the 
throne, and murdered in a prison. Of this difference between 
the lot of the father and the son, the solution must be sought in 
the manners and character of the age. They both reigned over 
proud and factious nobles, jealous of their own liberties, but 
regardless of the liberties of others; and who, though they 
respected the arbitrary sway of a monarch as haughty and violent 
as themselves, despised the milder and more equitable administra- 
tion of his successor. That successor, naturally easy and indo- 
lent, fond of the pleasures of the table and the amusements of 
the chase, willingly devolved on others the cares and labors of 
government. But in an age unacquainted with the more modern 
expedient of a responsible minister, the barons considered the 
elevation of the favorite as their own depression, his power as the 
infringement of their rights. The result was, as we have seen, 
a series of associations, having for their primary object the re- 
moval of evil counsellors, as they were called, from the person of 

IS* 



210 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1327. 

the prince, but gradually invading the legitimate rights of the 
crown, and terminating in the dethronement and assassination of 
the sovereign. For the part which Isabella acted in this tragedy 
no apology can be framed. In a few years, her crime was pu- 
nished with the general execration of mankind. She saw Morti- 
mer expire on a gibbet, and spent the remainder of her life in 
disgrace and obscurity. 

In Edward's reign, the abolition of the Knights Templars took 
place. That celebrated order was established in 1118, by the 
The order of the patriarch of Jerusalem, and originally consisted of 
Knights Templars. nme p 00r knights, who lived, in community, near 
the isle of the ancient temple, and took on themselves the volun- 
tary obligation of watching the roads in the neighborhood of the 
city, and of protecting the pilgrims from the insults of robbers 
and infidels. By degrees, their number was surprisingly aug- 
mented ; they were the foremost in every action of danger ; their 
military services excited the gratitude of Christendom ; and in 
every nation legacies were annually left, and lands successively 
bestowed on the Templars. But wealth and power generated a 
spirit of arrogance and independence, which exasperated both the 
civil and ecclesiastical authorities; and after a long investigation 
into some charges against the order, Pope Clement V. published 
a bull suppressing the institute, not by way of a judicial sentence 
establishing its guilt, but by the plenitude of his power, and as a 
measure of expediency rather than of justice. The possessions 
of the Templars had reverted as escheats to the lords of the fees, 
and an act of parliament was passed, assigning them to the hos- 
pitallers, for the same purposes for which they had been originally 
bestowed on the templars. 



1327 A. D.] 



EDWARD THE THIRD. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



€torb i(u f<Ijiri&. 



211 



CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. 


Scotland. 


France. 




Robert I. 


Charles IV. 


John XXII. 


David II. 


Philip VI. 


Benedict XII. 


Robert II. 


John. 


Clement VI. 




Charles V. 


Innocent VI. 


Germany. 


Spain. 


Urban V. 


Louis IV. 


Alphonso XI 


Gregory XI. 


Charles IV. 


Pedro. 
Henry II. 



Campaign against the Scots — Death of the Earl of Kent — Fall and Execution 
of Mortimer — Edward claims the Crown of France — Expedition to Flanders 
— Truce — Renewal of the War — Victory at Creci — Renewal of the War with 
France — Victory of Poitiers — Death of the Black Prince — Death of Edward. 
—From A. D. 1327 to 1377. 

For some years, Isabella and Mortimer enjoyed the reward of 
their guilt. Of the forfeited estates of the Spensers and their 
partisans, the larger portion, ■with the title of the earl of March, 
fell to the lot of Mortimer, and a council of regency was appointed, 
to consist of four bishops, four earls, and six barons. 

The first measures of the new government were disconcerted by 
an unexpected occurrence. Of the truce with Scotland, only a 
few years had expired ; but the state of affairs in The truce with 
England offered to the Scottish king a temptation Scotland broken. 
which he had not the virtue to resist. He determined, in viola- 
tion of his engagements, to wrest, if possible, from the young 
king a solemn renunciation of that superiority which had been 
claimed by his father and grandfather. Aware of the intentions 
of Bruce, the English government had recourse to every expe- 
dient to avert hostilities, and it was at last agreed that ambassa- 
dors should meet on the borders, and treat of a final peace. The 
negotiators met: the Scots insisted on their own terms; and 
when the English demurred, an army of twenty-four thousand 
men under Randolph and Douglas crossed the borders, and ra- 
vaged the county of Cumberland. 



212 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1327. 



Edward consumed six weeks at York, waiting for the arrival 
of his forces. At length the English, amounting to more than 
Edward prepares f° r ty thousand men, marched to Durham, but were 
for war. unable to obtain any certain intelligence of the 

enemy, and the armies did not meet for some weeks. They en- 
camped near each other on 1st August, 1327, in the neigh- 
borhood of Stanhope; but the Scotch retreated to their own 
dominions without waiting for an engagement. The English 
army marched back to Durham, and thence to York, where it 
was disbanded. 

This was followed by a peace. It was agreed that there should 
be final and perpetual concord between the kingdoms of England 
and Scotland, and that David, the Scottish prince, 
should be married to the sister of Edward. A 
parliament was immediately summoned to meet at York ; and in 
it Edward was persuaded to execute a deed of renunciation, for 
himself and his successors, of all claims of superiority over the 
crown of Scotland. 

When the council of regency was appointed, it had been 
directed that out of the number, one bishop, one earl, and two 

Hostilities be- barons should daily attend the king, and give him 
and en tiie M e°ari m of their advice on all matters of importance. But as 
Lancaster. Mortimer superseded them all, his conduct natu- 

rally excited the jealousy of the great barons, and associations 
were formed to remove him from court. Mortimer, in October, 
1328, with a numerous army, entered into Salisbury, where a 
parliament had been summoned, and Henry, earl of Lancaster, 
the nominal guardian of the king's person and president of the 
council, commanded an inferior force near Winchester. The 
favorite, taking with him the king and queen, advanced toward 
Winchester. From Winchester he led his followers to Leicester, 
and plundered the domain of the earl of Lancaster. That noble- 
man had hitherto retired before Mortimer; he was now joined by 
the king's uncles, but he was soon deserted by them ; and, de- 
spairing of success, submitted to ask pardon before the two 
armies, and entered into recognizances not to oppose the king or 
his council. 

When the parliament assembled at Winchester, the earl of 
Kent, the king's uncle, the archbishop of York, the bishop of 



1830 A. D.] EDWARD THE THIRD. 213 

London, with several knights and gentlemen, were Death of the earl 
unexpectedly arrested on the charge of having con- of Keut 
spired to depose the king, and to replace his father, whose death 
they disbelieved, on the throne. Kent was adjudged to suffer 
the penalty of treason, but it was believed that his birth would 
save him from punishment. Isabella, however, was inexorable ; 
the son of the great Edward was led by the order of his nephew 
to the place of execution, and after a painful suspense of four 
hours, a felon from the Marshalsea (no other could be found to 
perform the office) was induced by a promise of pardon to strike 
off his head. 

Edward was now eighteen, an age when his predecessors had 
been deemed capable of governing the realm; and Philippa of 
Hainault, whom he married in 1328, had borne him a son, the 
same who is so celebrated in history under the name of the Black 
Prince. He felt the state of dependence in which he was kept, 
and viewed with concern the conduct of his mother. He confided 
his thoughts to the discretion of the Lord Montacute, who ex- 
horted him to assume the exercise of the royal authority. The 
king lent a willing ear to the proposal ; a design was formed to 
seize the person of Mortimer, and it was fixed to make the 
attempt during the session of the parliament at Nottingham. 

When the time came, Isabella, with her son and her favorite, 
took up her residence in the castle ; the prelates and barons were 
lodged in the town and the neighborhood. Morti- Edward assumes 

° , . . ° „ , . the reins of go- 

mer had taken every precaution tor his security; vernment. 
but his enemies entered the castle one night, and they were joined 
by Edward on the staircase leading to the principal tower. They 
mounted in silence, till they heard the sound of voices in a room 
adjoining to Isabella's apartment, where Mortimer was engaged in 
consultation with the bishop of Lincoln and his principal advisers. 
The door was instantly forced, and two knights, who endeavored 
to defend the entrance, were slain. The queen had retired to rest 
in the adjoining apartment. Alarmed at the noise, she burst into 
the room. But in defiance of her tears and exclamations, Morti- 
mer was secured ; and the next morning the king announced by 
proclamation that he had taken the reins of government into his 
own hands, and summoned a new parliament to meet in a few 
weeks at Westminster. 



214 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1330. 



By this parliament, Mortimer was condemned, and executed at 
Tyburn, 29th November, 1330. Isabella, at the solicitation of 

Execution of Mor- tne P°P e > was s P ared the ignominy of a public 
timer - trial; but Edward reduced her income to three 

thousand pounds, and confined her to the manor of Risings, where 
she passed in obscurity the remaining twenty-seven years of her 
life. The king annually paid her a visit of ceremony; he even 
added a thousand pounds to her yearly income; but he never 
more allowed her to assume any share of political power. After 
these executions he asked the advice of John XXII. for the 
regulation of his subsequent conduct; and was exhorted by that 
pontiff to shun the danger of favoritism; and, instead of follow- 
ing the interested counsels of a few individuals, to govern by the 
united advice of his barons, prelates, and commons assembled in 
parliament. 

Robert Bruce, king of Scotland, had lived to see the independ- 
ence of his crown acknowledged by the king of England. At 

Edward Baiioi: n ^ s death he left to Randolf, earl of Moray, the 
his success. guardianship of his son David, who was only in 

his seventh year. Disputes took place respecting the restoration 
of certain estates belonging to English barons, landholders in 
Scotland, which had been seized during the last war. These 
barons were joined by Edward Baliol, the son and heir of John 
Baliol, whom the king's grandfather had compelled to resign his 
crown. After some consultation, they resolved to appeal to the 
sword ; a resolve which placed Edward in a very delicate situa- 
tion. On the one side he had sworn to observe the peace ; on the 
other, the minority of David offered the most favorable opportu- 
nity of recovering that superiority, which he would not have 
surrendered had not Bruce taken the advantage of similar cir- 
cumstances to invade England, in violation of his oath. His 
counsellors, however, determined not to tolerate any open infrac- 
tion of the treaty; and the sheriffs of the five northern counties 
were enjoined to forbid the perpetration of any act which could 
be deemed a violation of the peace. Baliol sailed with about 
three thousand men from Ravenspur, a port in the mouth of the 
Humber, to Kinghorn in Fife, ordered his fleet to the mouth of 
the Tay, and hastened to meet an enemy whose force was twenty 
times greater than his own. At first he succeeded, and was 



1333 A. D.] EDWARD THE THIRD. 215 



crowned at Scone by the bishop of Dunkeld. Astonished at the 
rapidity of his success, his enemies solicited a suspension of hos- 
tilities, and proposed a convention of the states to settle the king- 
dom. Baliol consented ; was surprised at Annan by the earl of 
Moray during the armistice ; and with difficulty escaped to the 
English marches, a solitary and helpless fugitive. 

Edward had secretly concluded two treaties with Baliol. By 
the first the new king acknowledged that the crown of Scotland 
was a fief belonging to the crown of England ; trans- Edwar(J -g treaties 
ferred to Edward the town and castle of Berwick ; with Balio1 - 
offered to marry the Princess Jane, if her marriage with David 
Bruce did not proceed; and engaged to grant to that young 
prince such an establishment as the king of England should 
think proper. By the second, each monarch bound himself to 
assist the other with all his power against every domestic enemy. 
The expulsion of Baliol suspended the effect of these treaties. 

But the real wishes of the English king were soon gratified by 
the impetuosity of the Scots, and the war was renewed. The 
campaign was opened by Baliol with the siege of The battle of Ha _ 
Berwick, which was gallantly defended by the earl lidon UU1 - 
of March. Two months elapsed before the king of England 
arrived ; but the operations of the siege were immediately pushed 
with new vigor ; and in a general assault the town was set on 
fire. The Scottish army advanced in four bodies to attack the 
besiegers. Edward drew up his army on Halidon Hill, from 
which the archers annoyed the enemy, as they struggled through 
the marshy ground at the foot, and climbed up the declivity of 
the mountain. The Scots were fatigued and disordered before 
they could reach their opponents ; the obstinacy with which they 
fought served only to increase their loss; and the slaughter is 
said to have exceeded that of any former defeat. The town and 
castle were immediately surrendered : and the young king, with 
his wife, the sister of Edward, was conveyed, for greater security, 
from Dunbarton into France, where he resided for several years. 

Baliol was now again seated on the throne of Scotland, and 
Edward required him to fulfil his former engagements. A parlia- 
ment was called at Edinburgh ; and all the coun- Baliol restored 
try to the east of a line drawn from Dumfries to Scotland. 
Linlithgow was, by general consent, separated from the crown of 



216 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1334. 



Scotland, and annexed to that of England. This enraged the 
Scots ; while the dissensions among the English barons, who had 
been restored to their estates, encouraged the friends of David. 
A new guardian or regent was appointed ; the cause of independ- 
ence again triumphed, and Baliol was compelled to take refuge in 
the lands which he had ceded to Edward. For several years he 
contrived to struggle against the obstinacy of his opponents and 
the perfidy of his followers. As long as he was supported by the 
king of England, he rose victorious from every disaster ; but from 
the moment that Edward determined to claim the crown of 
France, the war was suffered to languish ; fortress after fortress 
surrendered to the adherents of David ; that prince at length 
ventured to revisit his kingdom ; and Baliol, instead of wielding 
the sceptre of Scotland, was employed in protecting from insult 
the northern counties of England. 

Edward was engaged during the remainder of his reign in his 
memorable contest with France. He was advised by his parlia- 
Edward's designs ment > sitting at Northampton, to claim the French 
on France. crown, as being, of all the male descendants of 

Philip the Third, the nearest in blood to the last monarch. The 
claim was rejected. Philip of Valois was crowned with the full 
consent of the states, and summoned his English competitor to 
come and do homage for the duchy of Guienne to him as his liege 
lord. 

Philip kept possession of several fortresses in Guienne, claimed 
by the king of England ; and Edward, when he consented to do 
homage, did it in general terms, omitting the liege promise of 
faith and loyalty. In 1381 a partial adjustment of their differ- 
ences took place ; but the opposite interest which each felt in the 
affairs of Scotland awakened their former jealousy, and hurried 
them into hostilities. 

When David was driven from his throne, Philip took him 
under his protection and aided his partisans. Edward beheld 
Philip befriends * n ' s conduct with displeasure, and turned his arms 
DaTid - from Scotland against France. To carry into exe- 

cution the mighty designs which he had formed, Edward con- 
cluded alliances with the emperor of Germany and other princes. 
Neither did Philip neglect the storm which he saw gathering 
around him; and soon more than half of the sovereigns of Europe 



1341 A. D.] EDWARD THE THIRD. 217 

were arrayed against each other, and the eyes of all Christendom 
were directed to the issue of the contest. 

Edward, to defray the expenses of his intended expedition, had 
recourse to forced loans, and he even pawned his jewels and crown. 
In the summer of 1338 he sailed with a numerous Edward invades 
fleet to Antwerp; but, to his disappointment, he France - 
soon learned that every attempt to draw the Flemings into the 
field was fruitless. In the spring of 1339, he summoned his 
allies to assemble at the appointed time ; and about the middle 
of September he was able to lead an army of fifteen thousand 
men-at-arms to the walls of Cambray. No important result fol- 
lowed from this campaign, and Edward soon disbanded his army. 
The pope soon afterward wrote a long and expostulatory letter to 
Edward, advising peace, but the king was immovably fixed in his 
purpose, and immediately afterward publicly assumed the title of 
king of France. To raise money for the payment of his debts and 
the expenses of another campaign, he determined to revisit Eng- 
land, and left his queen at Ghent as an hostage for his speedy 
return. From his parliament he obtained supplies; and was 
preparing to fulfil his engagement, when advice was brought that 
Philip, to intercept him on his passage, had assembled, with the 
aid of the Genoese and Normans, a powerful fleet in the harbor 
of Sluys. The king immediately collected every vessel in the 
southern ports, and the next evening discovered the French fleet, 
over which he gained an important victory. 

Crowned with laurels, Edward landed, and marched at the head 
of two hundred thousand men to undertake, at the same time, the 
two sieges of Tournay and St. Omer. Yet these His operations in 
mighty preparations, after a few weeks, ended in concluded, 
nothing. Edward asked money from England, but the exche- 
quer was unable to satisfy his wants. Some of the courtiers im- 
proved the opportunity to instil into his mind suspicions of the 
fidelity of his ministers ; and suddenly he sailed, in stormy wea- 
ther, from a port in Zealand, stole unperceived up the Thames, 
landed about midnight at the Tower, and the next morning dis- 
placed the chancellor, treasurer, and master of the rolls, confined 
three of the judges, and ordered the arrest of most of the officers 
employed in the collection of the revenue. He returned to 
France in a few months with twelve thousand men; but, by 
o 19 



218 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1346. 



attempting too much, effected nothing. He divided his forces 
into three divisions, with which, at the same time, he pretended 
to invest Rennes, Nantes, and Vannes, which had lately been re- 
taken by Charles ; but the arrival of the duke of Normandy, the 
eldest son of Philip, compelled him to concentrate and intrench 
his forces. The French did the same ; and the two armies re- 
mained for several weeks during the depth of winter in the 
vicinity of each other. At this juncture, to the equal satisfac- 
tion of both parties, two cardinals arrived, and a truce was con- 
cluded for three years and eight months. Preparations for the 
renewal of war were, however, made on both sides. The English 
parliament recommended the renewal of hostilities, and an army 
proceeded to Guienne under the command of the king's cousin, 
the earl of Derby. Edward, having collected a numerous force, 
sailed from Southampton, with the intention, as he gave out, of 
invading the southern provinces of France, suddenly altered his 
course, and anchored in the road of La Hogue, on the coast of 
Normandy. The province was defenceless, and Edward obtained 
some important advantages. Philip advanced against him with a 
very large force, and Edward retreated before him for a time, but 
at length resolved to give him battle. The spot on which he 
determined to receive the enemy was the high ground beyond 
Creci, lying between the river Maye on the right, and Wadicourt 

The eve of the to ^ e ^ e &- ^ n ^ e evening he invited his barons 
battle of Cred. i g U pper ; entertained thenrwith cheerfulness, and 
dismissed them with a promise of victory. When they were gone, 
he entered his oratory, threw himself on his knees before the altar, 
and prayed that God would preserve his honor. It was midnight 
when he retired to his bed ; he slept little, and at dawn on the 
morning of the 26th August, 1346, assisted at mass, and received 
the communion with his son, the young prince of Wales, who had 
just reached his fifteenth year. 

As soon as the troops had breakfasted, the marshals issued their 
orders, and each lord, under his own banner and pennon, marched 

Edward prepares *° *he g roun d which had been allotted to him on 
for the battle. t] ie preceding day. All were dismounted, to take 
away the temptation of pursuit or flight. The first division, under 
the nominal command of the prince, the real command of the 
earls of Warwick and Oxford, consisted of eight hundred men-at- 



1346 A. D.] 



EDWARD THE THIRD. 



219 



arms, a thousand Welsh infantry, and two thousand archers. 
At some distance behind them, but rather on their flank, was 
placed the second division of eight hundred men-at-arms, and 
twelve hundred archers. The third, under the command of 
the king, comprised seven hundred men-at-arms, and two thou- 
sand archers, and was stationed as a reserve on the summit of 
the hill. The archers of each division formed in its front in the 
shape of a portcullis ; and orders were issued that no man should 
encumber himself with the charge of a prisoner or quit his post to 
pursue a fugitive. Edward, on a small palfrey, with a marshal 
on each side, rode from company to company, speaking to all, ex- 
horting them to defend his honor, and expressing bis confidence of 
victory. About ten o'clock he ordered them to take refreshment. 
They sat in ranks on the ground, with their bows and helmets be- 
fore them. 

The king of France had marched from Abbeville about sunrise; 
but the multitude of his followers advanced in so disorderly a man- 
ner, that the knights who had reconnoitred the The army of the 
English army advised him to postpone the battle French kin e- 
till the morrow, and employ the interval in marshalling his army. 
Two officers were immediately despatched, one to the van, the other 
to the rear, crying out, " Halt, banners, in the name of God and 
St. Denis." But these orders increased the confusion. By some 
they were obeyed, by many misunderstood, and by the greater part 
disregarded. Philip suffered himself to be carried forward by the 
stream ; and, as soon as he saw the English, he lost his temper, 
and ordered the Genoese to form, and begin the battle. 

The Genoese were a body of six, or according to some writers, 
fifteen, thousand Italians, who fought with cross-bows under two 
celebrated leaders, Antonio Doria and Carlo Grimaldi. They were 
supported by the king's brother, the count d'Alen§on with a nu- 
merous cavalry superbly accoutred. The king himself followed 
with the rest of the army in four divisions; the amount of the 
combatants has been estimated by different writers, at every inter- 
mediate number between sixty and one hundred and twenty thou- 
sand men. 

Never, perhaps, were preparations for battle made under cir- 
cumstances so truly awful. On that very day the 

a- 3 ?• i v i . , . V / , The battle of 

sun suflered a partial eclipse ; birds in clouds, the Oeci. 



220 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1346 

precursors of a storm, flew screaming over the two armies; and the 
rain fell in torrents, accompanied with incessant thunder and light- 
ning. About five in the afternoon the weather cleared up, the 
sun in full splendor darted his rays in the eyes of the enemy. 
The Genoese, setting up three shouts, discharged their arrows. 
But they were no match for the English archers, who received the 
volley in silence, and returned their arrows in such numbers and 
with such force, that the cross-bowmen began to waver. The 
count d'Alencon, calling them cowards, ordered his men to cut 
down the runaways; but he only added to the disorder. Many of 
his knights were unhorsed by the archers, and, as they lay on the 
ground, were despatched by the Welshmen, who had armed them- 
selves with long knives for the purpose. 

At length the passage was cleared ; the count on one side, and 
his colleague the earl of Flanders on the other, skirted the Eng- 
lish archers, while a numerous body of French, Germans, and 
Savoyards, forced their way to the men-at-arms under the com- 
mand of the prince. The second division immediately closed for 
his support; but the conflict grew fierce and doubtful, and Sir 
Thomas Norwich was sent to request a reinforcement. Edward, 
who from a windmill watched the chances of the battle, and the 
movements of the armies, inquired if his son were killed or 
wounded. The messenger replied, " No." " Then," said he, " tell 
Warwick that he shall have no assistance. Let the boy win his 
spurs. He and those who have him in charge shall earn the whole 
glory of the day." This answer was hailed as a prediction of 
victory, and infused new courage into the combatants. 

D'Alencon, unable to make any impression on the English 
in his front, attempted to turn their position by penetrating through 
The heroic con- a narr °w P ass on one side of the hill ; but he found 
duct of pwiip. the outlet barricaded with carts and wagons from 
the camp, and was repulsed with great slaughter by a body of 
archers posted behind them. In the mean time, Philip, who had 
hitherto been only a spectator to the action, grew impatient; he has- 
tened with his force to the aid of his brother ; and fought as if it 
had been his object to refute the taunt of cowardice so often ap- 
plied to him by Edward. He was wounded in two places ; his 
horse was killed under him ; he retired till the blood was stanched, 
and then mounting another charger, rushed into the midst of the 



1346 A. D.] EDWARD THE THIRD. 221 



combatants. But the day was already lost ; his brother, with the 
flower of the French chivalry, had fallen ; and John of Hainault, 
seizing the king's bridle, and bidding him reserve himself for vic- 
tory on some future occasion, led him by force out of the field. 
With a slender escort of five barons and sixty knights he escaped 
to the city of Amiens. 

The flight of Philip did not terminate the contest. Many of 
the French continued in detached bodies to charge their adversa- 
ries ; but, as their efforts were made without concert, Edward meets 
they generally ended in the destruction of the as- battle, 
sailants. As the darkness increased, the fighting gradually ceased ; 
the voices of men seeking their banners from which they had 
wandered were no longer heard; and the English congratulated 
themselves on the repulse of the enemy. The king, ignorant of 
the extent of his victory, ordered fires to be kindled, and forbade 
his men to quit their posts. Eager to testify his approbation of 
the prince, he sprang to meet him, and clasping him in his arms, 
exclaimed, " Fair son, continue your career. You have behaved 
nobly. You have shown yourself worthy of me and the crown !" 
The young Edward sank on his knees, and modestly attributed all 
the merit to his father. 

Eleven princes and twelve hundred knights were slain in this 
battle. Report made the total number of those killed amount to 
thirty thousand. A truce of three days was proclaimed for the 
burial of the dead ; and the king himself attended in mourning at 
the funeral service. 

Among the slain, the most distinguished was John, king of 
Bohemia. His motto, " Ich dien," (I serve,) was adopted by the 
prince of Wales, and has been always borne by his successors. 

At this time, David, king of Scotland, invaded England, but 
was defeated at Nevil's Cross, in Cumberland, taken prisoner, and 
conveyed to London. In Guienne, the earl of Der- The si of Ca . 
by obtained several most important advantages over lais - A - D - 1346 - 
the French. Edward was engaged in the siege of Calais, a siege 
which formed a new era in the military history of the age. Con- 
trary to all precedent, not an assault was given, not a single en- 
gine was erected against the place. Instead of force, the king 
relied on the slower but less fallible operation of famine. A nu- 
merous fleet blockaded the harbor ; and communication with the 

19* 



222 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1346. 

interior was intercepted by the besiegers. The governor turned 
out of the town every individual who did not possess a sufficient 
supply of provisions for several months. Men, women, and chil- 
dren, to the number of seventeen hundred persons, advanced in 
mournful procession to the English camp. Edward ordered them 
to be received, gave them a plentiful repast, and at their depar- 
ture distributed to each two pieces of silver. Five hundred more 
of the inhabitants were driven without the gates. The English 
lines were, however, shut against them, and the unfortunate suffer- 
ers, without covering or provisions, perished miserably. 

The king of France approached near Calais to relieve the be- 
sieged, but retired without rendering them any aid. It was in 
vain that the governor solicited terms of capitulation. Edward 
The surrenderof insisted that he should surrender at discretion ; and 

thecity: thenobie the inhabitants, who knew that the king had ex- 
conduct of St. ' # ° r 

Pierre. pressed a resolution to punish their habits of pi- 

racy, and that his former enmity had been imbittered by the ob- 
stinacy of their resistance, received the answer with feelings of 
despair. They met in the market-place to consult ; and the com- 
mon gloom was dispelled by the generous devotedness of Eustace 
de St. Pierre, who offered to stake his life for the safety of his 
fellow-townsmen. Five others imitated his example, and the pro- 
cession walked from the gate to the English camp. It was headed 
by the governor, riding on a palfrey, on account of his wounds ; 
fifteen knights followed with their heads bare and their swords 
pointed to the ground ; and then came the six townsmen, barefoot 
and bareheaded, with halters in their hands. By Edward they 
were received with an air of severity. The governor presented to 
him his sword, and the keys of the town ; and joining his com- 
panions in misfortune, implored on his knees the mercy of the 
conqueror. The king affected to be inexorable, rejected the inter- 
cession of his barons, sent for the executioner, and if he at last 
yielded, it was with apparent reluctance, to the tears and entreaties 
of his queen Philippa. The prisoners were left to the disposal of 
their fair advocate, who clothed them, invited them to a plentiful 
repast, and at their departure made to each of them a present of 
six nobles. Thus was Calais severed from the French crown after 
a siege of twelve months. To secure his conquest, Edward ex- 
pelled the natives who refused to swear fealty to the king of Eng- 



1347 A. D.] EDWARD THE THIRD. 223 



land, and repeopled the town with a colony of his own subjects. 
It rapidly became a place of considerable opulence ; it was ap- 
pointed the general mart for the sale of merchandise exported from 
England ; and it continued to flourish for more than two centuries 
under the protection of its conqueror and his successors. 

Writers have not always sufficiently appreciated the benefits 
which mankind derived from the pacific influence of the Roman 
pontiffs. In an age which valued no merit but that i n fl Uen ce of the 
of arms, Europe would have been plunged in per- Rom an pontiffs. 
petual war, had not pope after pope labored incessantly for the pre- 
servation or restoration of peace. They rebuked the passions and 
checked the extravagant pretensions of sovereigns ; their charac- 
ter, as the common fathers of Christians, gave to their representa- 
tions a weight which no other mediator could claim ; and their 
legates spared neither journey nor fatigue to reconcile the jarring 
interests of courts, and interpose the olive of peace between the 
swords of contending armies. As soon as the war recommenced 
between Edward and Philip, Clement had resumed his pacific en- 
deavors ; for two years he ceased not to entreat, to admonish, to 
reprehend ; the violence and obstinacy of his belligerent children 
did not exhaust his patience; and as soon as the French army had 
reached Whitsand, the cardinals of Naples and Clermont offered 
their services, to prevent the effusion of blood. But Philip refused 
to deliver up a town which had so long set at defiance the power 
of his adversary, and Edward would not forego the expected re- 
ward of his perseverance in so tedious a siege. "When Calais had 
fallen, the legates renewed their offer ; each king was now willing 
to admit of a temporary respite ; and an armistice, which was con- 
cluded for a few months, was, at the repeated instances of the holy 
see, gradually prolonged for six years. It was a breathing time 
necessary to the king of France, that he might restore his finances 
and the spirit of his people ; it was welcome to the king of Eng- 
land, who could now repose with satisfaction under the laurels 
which he had gained. The victories of Creci and Nevil's Cross 
had stamped the reputation of the English, and raised their sove- 
reign to the first rank among the princes of Europe ; and two of 
the chief of his opponents, David king of Scots, and Charles de 
Blois, duke of Bretagne, were his prisoners. 

In the first week of August, 1318, a plague made its appear- 



224 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1355. 



ance in England. Of its victims, many expired in the course 
a plague in Eng- °^ s * x hours, and few lingered more than two or 
land - three days. From man, the exterminating malady 

spread itself to the brute creation. The labors of husbandry were 
neglected; no courts of justice were opened; the parliament was 
repeatedly prorogued by proclamation ; and men, intent only on 
their own safety, fled from the care of the infected, and slighted 
every call of honor, duty, and humanity. When historians tell 
us that one-half or one-third of the population perished, we may 
suspect them of exaggeration ; but it is easy to form some idea 
of the mortality, from the fact that all the cemeteries of London 
were soon filled. 

Edward had now awaked from the dream of his ambition. 
Convinced by experience that the French crown lay beyond his 
Renewal of the reac ^j he offered to renounce his pretensions in ex- 
■war with France, change for the sovereignty of the provinces which 
he held as a vassal in his own right, and in the right of his 
queen. By Philip, the proposal was rejected with scorn; John, 
his son and successor, discovered, perhaps feigned, a willingness 
to accept it. But this prospect, so consoling to the friends of 
humanity, was closed by the pride of the French people. Edward 
again took up arms ; and a plan of combined operations was con- 
certed between him and his eldest son, now called, from the color 
of his armor, the Black Prince. The latter, during the year 
1355, opened the campaign with an army of sixty thousand men. 
In the short space of seven weeks he had laid in ashes more 
than five hundred cities, towns, and villages, in a populous dis- 
trict, which for a century had not been visited with the horrors 
of war. 

During this expedition, the king of England marched from 
Calais at the head of a gallant army ; but all his plans were dis- 
Tho Scots invade concerted by the superior policy of John, who cau- 
Engiano. tiously shunned an engagement, but was careful, 

as he retired before his adversary, to lay waste the country 
around him. The English had not reached Amiens when the 
want of provisions compelled them to return. A scanty supply 
was procured in the Boulonnois ; and they entered Calais on the 
tenth day after their departure from it. Here the French 
monarch sought to amuse Edward with proposals for a general 



1356 A. D.] EDWARD THE THIRD. 225 



battle ; while his allies the Scots surprised Berwick, poured over 
the borders, and spread devastation through the northern coun- 
ties. But at the first intelligence the king hastened to England, 
met his parliament at Westminster, obtained a liberal aid for six 
years, and ordered his forces to assemble in Northumberland. 
Berwick was recovered by the sole terror of his approach ; and 
at Roxburgh he purchased from Baliol his patrimonial property 
in Galloway, together with his rights to the Scottish throne. 

The next year was signalized by the ever-memorable victory of 
Poitiers. The honor and plunder of the late campaign stimu- 
lated the prince of Wales to a similar attempt in The rava „ es of 
a different direction. With a small army of twelve the English army, 
thousand men he left Bordeaux, ascended the Garonne as far as 
Agen, and, turning to the left, overran the fertile provinces of 
Querci, Limousin, Auvergne, and Berri. Conquest was not his 
object, but to inflict on the natives the injuries of war and to en- 
rich his followers at the expense of the enemies. The harvest 
was trodden under foot ; the cattle were slaughtered ; the wines 
and provisions which the army could not consume were destroyed ; 
the farm-houses, villages, and towns were reduced to ashes ; and 
every captive able to pay his ransom was conducted to Bordeaux. 
He turned from Issodun and Bourges, which threatened a vigor- 
ous resistance ; but took Vierzon by storm, and Romorantin by 
setting it on fire. In this desolating expedition, it does not seem 
to have occurred to the young prince that it was dangerous to 
penetrate so far into a powerful kingdom, or that his retreat 
might probably be intercepted by a more numerous force. The 
king of France had ordered his vassals to join him at Chartres, 
and crossing the Loire at Blois, pushed forward to the city of 
Poitiers. Edward, when it was too late, had commenced his 
march for the same city; but it was his misfortune to know 
nothing of his enemy but from vague and suspicious reports, 
while his own motions were accurately observed and daily notified 
to the French monarch. One day, after a fatiguing The armies mect 
march, the English had reached in the afternoon near Poitiers - 
the village of Maupcrtuis, about five miles from Poitiers, when 
their van unexpectedly fell in with the rear of the enemy. The 
danger of his situation immediately flashed on the mind of the 



226 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1356. 



prince. " God help us I" he exclaimed ; " it only remains for us 
to fight bravely." 

In stating the amount of the hostile armies, historians are 

greatly at variance; but of their relative numbers, a probable 

The number and estimate may be formed from the testimony of Sir 

position of the two •* , 

armies. 1 nomas Gray, that John had eight thousand, 

Edward, one thousand nine hundred coats-of-arms under his com- 
mand. This superiority was partially balanced by the advantage 
of a position most unfavorable to the operations of the cavalry, 
which formed the real, the only strength of the French army. 
It was a rising ground, covered with vineyards, and intersected 
with hedges, accessible only in one point through a long and 
narrow lane, which in no part would admit of more than four 
horsemen abreast. In the morning, the prince ordered his men- 
at-arms to form on foot in front of the road; one half of his 
archers he posted before them in the favorite figure of a port- 
cullis or harrow ; the other half he ordered to line all the hedges 
between the main body and the moor on which the enemy was 
encamped. John arrayed his army in three divisions on foot, 
under the separate command of his cousin, the duke of Orleans, 
of his three eldest sons, and of himself and his fourth son, a 
youth in his sixteenth year. He retained on horseback only 
three small bodies, one of which, consisting of three hundred 
knights and esquires, selected from the whole army, was destined 
for the hazardous attempt of dispersing the archers in front of 
the English line. These arrangements were hardly completed 
cardinal Peri- when the cardinal Talleyrand Perigord arrived on 
SftrtSSSnS the fteld > and with "Plifted hands besought John 
datiou - to spare the blood of so many noble knights ; nor 

stake on the uncertain issue of a battle the advantages which he 
would certainly obtain by negotiation. His repeated entreaties 
wrung from the king a reluctant consent; and riding to the 
prince, he represented to him the danger of his situation. " Save 
my honor," said the young Edward, " and the honor of my army, 
and I will readily listen to reasonable conditions." " Fair son," 
replied the cardinal, " you have answered wisely : such conditions 
it shall be my task to procure." The legate was indefatigable in 
his endeavors. He rode from army to army ; he labored to sub- 
due the reluctance of the prince, and to lower the confidence of 



1356 A. D.] EDWARD THE THIRD. 227 



the king. Edward offered to restore his conquests, his spoil, and 
his captives, and not to bear arms against France for seven years. 
John, at the persuasion of the bishop of Chalons, and Eustace de 
Kibeaument, demanded as his ultimatum, that the prince and a 
hundred of his knights should surrender themselves prisoners of 
war. The proposal was indignantly rejected; the prospect of a 
pacification vanished ; and the night was spent in preparations 
for battle. To judge from the opposite numbers, no doubt could 
be entertained of its issue ; but the recollection of the battle of 
Creci cheered the English with a gleam of hope, and occasionally 
staggered the confidence of their enemies. 

With the dawn of light, the trumpets summoned the two 
nations to their respective posts. The English had improved the 
interval to throw up trenches, and form a barricade The battle of 
of wagons, where their position seemed the least Poitiers- 
difficult of access. The French had made no other alteration 
than to place a body of reserve under the duke of Orleans in the 
rear, and to give the command of the first division to the two 
marshals, Arnold d'Andreghen and John de Clermont. The 
cardinal Talleyrand was again in the field; but his entreaties 
were fruitless, and he was told that so much importunity dis- 
pleased the king, and might be attended with disagreeable conse- 
quences to himself. He then rode to convey the tidings to the 
prince, who coolly replied, " God defend the right !" and the de- 
parture of the legate was made the signal for the commencement 
of the battle. The French marshals, at the head of their cavalry, 
fearlessly entered the lane, and were suffered to advance without 
molestation. At last the order was given ; the archers behind 
the hedges poured in destructive volleys of arrows ; the passage 
was choked with men and horses in the agonies of death ; and the 
confusion became irremediable, from the increasing pressure of 
the rest of the column. A few knights forced their way through 
every obstacle; others broke down the hedges, and in small 
bodies reached different points in front of the English ; but not 
one could penetrate as far as the main body. The arrows were 
directed with too sure an aim to be eluded by address, and flew 
with a rapidity not to be resisted by ordinary armor. D'An- 
dreghen was unhorsed and taken ; Clermont was killed ; the sur- 
vivors, dismayed by their fate, paused, then retired slowly, and 



228 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1356. 



at last fled with precipitation to the second division, which re- 
ceived them within its ranks. 

But that division now began to waver. The archers, the terror 
of the men-at-arms at a distance, advanced in front, and a body 
of sis hundred English was unexpectedly seen to cross a neigh- 
boring hill, and fall on the left flank. The knights in the rear 
hastily left their banners to secure their horses, and the lords 
who had the charge of the three princes, alarmed for their 
safety, sent them to Chauvigni under a guard of eight hundred 
lances. The departure of so large a body was mistaken for a 
flight, and the whole division in a few minutes dispersed. 

The men-at-arms under Edward had hitherto been spectators 
of the combat. " Sir," said Sir John Chandos to the prince, 
The valor of the "the field is won. Let us mount, and charge the 
French king. French king. I know him for an intrepid knight, 

who will never flee from an enemy. It may be a bloody attempt; 
but, please God and St. George, he shall be our prisoner." The 
advice was approved, and the army advanced from the enclosures 
to the moor, which had become the theatre of battle. The duke 
of Athens, constable of France, was the first to throw himself in 
their way ; his shout of " Mountjoy and St. Denis I" was answered 
by the national cry of " St. George for Guienne !" and in a few 
minutes the duke, with the greater part of his followers, was 
slain. The German cavalry next charged the English, but were 
easily dispersed, with the loss of the three earls, their com- 
manders. Lastly, John himself, animated by despair, (for his 
reserve had fled already,) led up his division on foot, and fought 
for honor, when it was evidently too late to fight for victory. 

When kings have fallen, or have been taken in battle, it has 
always been the fashion to describe them as performing prodigies 
John is taken of valor; but John does not owe his reputation to 
prisoner. flattery or pity : it had been previously established 

in several engagements, and was equally acknowledged by friends 
and foes. For a while he maintained the unequal contest. He 
had received two wounds in the face ; was beaten to the ground ; 
and was surrounded by a host of adversaries, each of whom was 
anxious to secure so noble a prize. A young knight, bursting 
through the crowd, bent his knee, and requested him to surren- 
der, or he would lose his life. He asked for his cousin, the 



1356 A. D.] EDWARD THE THIRD. 229 

prince of Wales. "He is not here," returned the knight; "but 
surrender to me, and I will conduct you to him." " But who 
are you ?" inquired the king. " Denis de Morbecque," he re- 
plied, " a knight of Artois, but compelled to serve the king of 
England, because I have been banished from France." John 
surrendered to him ; and his son Philip was made prisoner at the 
same time. 

Thus ended the battle of Poitiers, in which the whole chivalry 
of France was defeated by a handful of Englishmen, and the 
king became the captive of the prince whom he The admirable 
persuaded himself he had enclosed in his toils. If queror. 
on such an occasion the youthful mind of the conqueror had be- 
trayed symptoms of vanity, it would have been pardonable ; but 
Edward's moderation in victory added to the admiration which 
he had inspired by his conduct in battle. There were in his 
army many knights who could have disputed with him the palm 
of personal bravery ; there was not, perhaps, one his equal in the 
more amiable accomplishments of modesty and courtesy. He be- 
haved to his royal captive with the respect due to a sovereign, 
waited on him at table, soothed his afflictions by reminding him 
of his valor, and assured him, that in the estimation of all who 
had witnessed his conduct, he had that day fairly won " the prize 
and garland" of chivalry. The next morning he continued his 
march with his prisoners to Bordeaux, and having concluded a 
truce for two years with the dauphin, the regent of France, re- 
turned to England in the spring. He landed with John at Sand- 
wich, "and proceeded by easy journeys to London. His father 
had given the necessary directions for his entry into the capital, 
under the pretence of doing honor to the king of nis triumphal 
France ; an unwelcome honor, which served to re- entr y int0 London - 
mind that monarch of his captivity, and to make him the prin- 
cipal ornament in the triumph of his conqueror. Arches were 
thrown across the streets, tapestry, plate, and arms were sus- 
pended from the windows, and the road was lined with crowds of 
spectators. The lord mayor, at the head of more than a thousand 
citizens, divided into companies distinguished by their respective 
devices and colors, proceeded to meet the prince and his attendants 
in Suuthwark. The king of France was mounted on a cream- 
colored charger with magnificent trappings; the young Edward 

20 



230 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1359. 



rode on a small pony, without any thing to distinguish him ; but 
he did not elude the eager eyes of the spectators, who hailed with 
loud acclamations the conqueror of Poitiers. Some hours elapsed 
before the cavalcade could reach Westminster Hall, where the 
king was seated on his throne, surrounded by his prelates and 
barons. When John entered he rose, descended to embrace him, 
and led him to partake of a splendid banquet. The palace of the 
Savoy, and afterward the castle of Windsor, was allotted to him 
and his son for their residence. 

Negotiations for the ransom of David of Scotland occupied 
much attention for a long time. At length a treaty was agreed 
Death of Dayid u P on f° r a stipulated sum. David died before all 
king of Scotland. was arranged; but the great truce (so it was 
called) was carefully observed, and the money was faithfully paid 
by Robert, his successor, the first of the house of Stuart who sat 
on the Scottish throne. 

But to adjust the rival claims of the kings of England and 
France was a matter of infinitely greater difficulty. Edward re- 
quired an enormous ransom for the king and the other prisoners, 
and demanded, in return for his renunciation of all claim to the 
crown of France, the restoration of the provinces which had 
formerly belonged to his ancestors, to be holden by him in full 
sovereignty, without any dependence on the French monarch. 
John, though he delayed, at length acceded to Edward's demands; 
but a peremptory refusal was unanimously returned by the French 
when asked to ratify the treaty. Edward complained that he 
was deceived by his adversaries, and bade them prepare for" war. 

In autumn, 1359, the king sailed from Sandwich with eleven 
hundred transports, conveying the most numerous and best ap- 

Edward again pointed army which had been raised in England 
invades France. f or more than a century. He marched from Calais 
through Picardy, Artois, and Cambresis, as far as Rheims, which 
he besieged, but without success. 

Edward soon planted his banner before the gates of Paris. 
After wreaking his vengeance on the suburbs by setting them on 

Peace finally nre > ne decamped, with a threat that he would 
concluded. soon p a y the capital a second and more formidable 

visit. Peace was, however, concluded shortly afterward. The 
king of England renounced his pretensions to the crown of France, 



1369 A.D.I EDWARD THE THIRD. 231 

and his claim to the ancient patrimonial possessions of his family, 
Normandy, Anjou, Touraine, and Maine ; he restored all his con- 
quests, with the exception of Calais and Guisnes; and reserved 
to himself Poitou and Guienne with their dependencies, and the 
county of Ponthieu, the inheritance of his mother. The dauphin, 
on the part of his father, consented that Edward and his heirs 
should possess for ever the full sovereignty of the countries 
secured to him by the treaty ; that a ransom of three million 
crowns of gold should be paid for John within the course of six 
years ; and that Edward should receive and detain as hostages 
twenty-five French barons, sixteen of the prisoners made in the 
battle of Poitiers, and forty- two burghers from the most opulent 
cities in France. John departed to his own dominions, but having 
returned to England on public business in 1364, he died in 
London. 

The king of England, soon after the peace with France, had 
united all his dominions between the Loire and the Pyrenees into 
on? principality, and had bestowed it on his eldest Charles refers 
son, the Black Prince, with the title of prince of his possessions. 
Acfuitaine. A dispute broke out between young Edward and 
Charles of France in 1369 ; and all the English possessions in 
France were annexed by a judicial sentence to the French crown. 
Conquest followed conquest; and at the end of six years Charles 
had not only recovered the districts lost by his father, but had 
also made himself master of the far greater part of Guienne. 

The English king convoked his parliament, inveighed with 
bitterness against the perfidy of Charles, reassumed the title of 
king of France, and offered to every adventurer The death of the 
the possession of such fiefs as he might conquer in Black Prince - 
that kingdom. Reinforcements were sent to the Black Prince, 
who lay in the castle of Angouleme, a prey to disease and vexa- 
tion, till he was roused from inactivity by the intelligence that 
the dukes of Anjou and Berri were advancing from different 
points to besiege him with their united forces. He declared that 
his enemies should find him in the field; his standard was un- 
furled at Cognac ; and there was still such a magic in his name, 
that the French princes disbanded their armies, and garrisoned 
their conquests. But the military career of the prince was now 
terminated. The effort had exhausted his enfeebled constitution ; 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1377. 



and by the advice of his physicians he returned to England, where, 
at a distance from the court and from political concerns, he lin- 
gered for six years, (till 1376,) cheering the gloom which hung 
over him with the hope that his second son Richard (the eldest 
was dead) would succeed to the crown, and uphold the renown of 
his family. 

In the year 1374, England retained of her transmarine pos- 
sessions only Calais, Bourdeaux, Bayonnc, and a few places on the 
Dordogne. Edward, weary of this succession of disasters, ob- 
tained a truce, which at short intervals was repeatedly prolonged 
till his death. The pope continually exhorted the kings to con- 
vert the truce into a peace ; but their resentments were too vio- 
lent, their pretensions too high, to allow any adjustment. 

Edward, in his latter years, lived in obscurity at Eltham. On 
the morning of his death his domestics separated to plunder the 
The death of Ed- P a l ace ) Du * a priest, who chanced to be present, 
ward- hastening to the bed of the dying monarch, ad- 

monished him of his situation, and bade him prepare himself to 
appear before his Creator. Edward, who had just strength suffi- 
cient to thank him, took a crucifix into his hands, kissed it, wept, 
and expired on the 21st June, 1377. 

The king had been once married to Philippa of Hainault, who 
died in 13 09, and was buried at Westminster. She bore him a 
numerous family, seven sons and five daughters ; of whom three 
sons and one daughter survived him. His death happened in the 
sixty -fifth year of his life, and the fifty-first of his reign. 

In pei-sonal accomplishments Edward is said to have been 

superior, in mental powers to have been equal, to any of his pre- 

ms accomplish- decessors. More than usual care had been be- 

ments and charac- , ,.-... ,, ,, . 

tor. stowed on his education ; and he could not only 

speak the English and French, but also understood the German 
and Latin languages. His elocution was graceful, his conversa- 
tion entertaining, his behaviour dignified, but also attractive. To 
the fashionable amusements of hunting and hawking he was much 
addicted ; but to these he preferred the more warlike exercise of 
the tournament; and his subjects, at the conclusion of the exhibi- 
tion, often burst into transports of applause when they found that 
the unknown knight, whose prowess they admired, proved to be 
their own sovereign. Of his courage as a combatant, and his 



1377 A. D.] 



EDWARD THE THIRD. 



233 



abilities as a general, the reader will have formed a competent 
opinion from the preceding pages. The astonishing victories, 
which cast so much glory on one period of his reign, appear to 
have dazzled the eyes both of his subjects and of foreigners, who 
placed him in the first rank of conquerors; but the disasters 
which clouded the evening of his life, have furnished a proof that 
his ambition was greater than his judgment. He was at last con- 
vinced that the crowns of France and Scotland were beyond his 
reach ; but not till he had exhausted the strength of the nation 
by a series of gigantic but fruitless efforts. Before his death all 
his conquests, with the exception of Calais, had slipped from his 
grasp ; the greater part of his hereditary dominions on the conti- 
nent had been torn from him by a rival, whom he formerly de- 
spised; and a succession of short and precarious truces was sought 
and accepted as a boon by the monarch who, in his more fortunate 
days, had dictated the peace of Bretigni. 

Still the military expeditions of Edward, attended as they were 
with a great expenditure of money and effusion of His military ex- 

,,,i . ,. ,, -!,• fi pcditiona and their 

blood, became in the result productive ot ad- consequences, 
vantages, which had neither been intended nor foreseen by their 
author. By plunging the king into debt, they rendered ■ him 
more dependent on the people, who, while they bitterly com- 
plained of the increasing load of taxation, secured, by the tem- 
porary sacrifice of their money, permanent benefits both for them- 
selves and posterity. There was scarcely a grievance, introduced 
by the ingenuity of feudal lawyers or the arrogance of feudal 
superiority, for which they did not procure a legal, and often an 
effectual remedy. It was not indeed a time when even par- 
liamentary statutes were faithfully observed. But during a 
reign of fifty years, the commons annually preferred the same 
complaints ; the king annually made the same grants ; and at 
length, by the mere dint of repeated complaint and repeated con- 
cession, the grievances were in most cases considerably mitigated 
— in some, entirely removed.* 



* Dr. Lingard, in this portion of his work, enters at very groat length into 
an investigation of the condition of England in the eventful half-century during 
which Edward I. reigned. In this dissertation the historian explains, with his 
usual clearness, the state of the kingdom with regard to taxation, the adminis- 
tration of justice, the additions made to the statute-book, (especially the "Statute 
1' 20* 



234 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1377. 



It is in the history of Edward's reign that the name of Wycliffe 
is first mentioned. He was, about 18G0, engaged in a contro- 
versy with the different orders of friars. They had 
Wycliffe. . 

been established in England for more than a century; 
and by their zeal, piety, and learning, had deservedly earned the 
esteem of the public. Some taught with applause in the uni- 
versities j many lent their aid to the parochial clergy in the dis- 
charge of their ministry ; several had been raised to the episcopal 
dignity ; and others had been employed in difficult and important 
negotiations by their sovereigns. This controversy had no im- 
mediate result ; but it was the origin of that violent hostility to 
the friars which Wycliffe displayed in every subsecpaent stage of 
his life. By degrees he diverted his invectives from the friars to 
the whole body of the clergy. The pope, the bishops, the rectors, 
and curates, smarted successively under the lash. 

The coarseness of Wycliffe's invectives soon became the subject 
of astonishment and complaint. In the last year of Edward, 
w ciiffe at st w ^^ e the parliament was sitting, he was summoned 
Paul's. to answer in St. Paul's before the primate and the 

bishop of London. He obeyed ; but made his appearance between 
the two most powerful subjects in England, the duke of Lancaster, 
and Percy, the lord marshal. Their object was to intimidate his 
opponents ; and the attempt was begun by Lancaster, who ordered 
a chair to be given to Wycliffe. Courtenay, the bishop of Lon- 
don, replied that it was not customary for the accused to sit in 
the presence, and without the permission, of his judges. A 
vehement altercation ensued, and the language of Lancaster grew 
so abusive, that the populace rose in defence of their bishop, and 
had it not been for his interference, would have offered violence 
to his reviler. Though the duke escaped with his life, his palace 
of the Savoy was pillaged. 

Wycliffe found it necessary to make the best apology in his 



of Treasons,") the forms of procedure in parliament, the mode of raising the 
army and navy, and the constitution of the church in England. This part of 
Dr. Lingard's work should be carefully studied by those who wish to traco tho 
progress of the institutions of the country and the growth of the English con- 
stitution; its length prevents our placing it in this abridgment, and it could 
not well be curtailed. We shall, however, at the close of this work, present 
the reader with a sketch of the British constitution in its present form. 



1377 A. D.] 



RICHARD THE SECOND. 



235 



power, and was permitted to depart with a severe reprimand, and 
an order to be silent for the future on those subjects which had 
given so much cause for complaint. 

The sequel of WyclifFe's history will be related in the narrative 
of the reign of the next monarch. 



CHAPTER XX. 



gitlprft t(j* Stt0tti&. 



CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. 


Scotland. 


France 




Robert II. 


Charles V. 


Gregory XL 


Robert III. 


Charles VI. 


Urban VI. 






Boniface IX. 




Spain. 




Germany, 


Henry II. 




Charles IV. 


John I. 




Winceslaus. 


Henry III. 



Coronation of Richard — Insurrection of the people — Wycliffe — Invasion of 
Scotland — The king goes to Ireland — The despotism of Richard — He pro- 
ceeds to Ireland a second time — Henry of Lancaster rebels — The king is 
made prisoner and deposed. — From A. D. 1377 to 1399. 

While Edward yet lay on his death-bed, a deputation of the 
citizens of London waited on Richard of Bourdeaux, the son and 
heir of the Black Prince, and offered him the Richard is 
throne. The same day his grandfather died ; the crowned, 
next afternoon Richard made his entry into the capital as king, 
and was crowned on the 16th July, 1377. The following day 
the prelates and barons held a great council to arrange the form 
of the new government during the minority of the king, and they 
chose, " in aid of the chancellor and treasurer," twelve councillors, 
two bishops, two earls, two barons, two bannerets, and four knights. 

The truce between England and France had expired before the 
death of Edward ; and Charles had taken the opportunity to re- 



236 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1377 



The truce with new hostilities, and add to his former conquests. 
France. His fleets insulted the English coasts ; and he 

obtained the co-operation of the Spaniards. The king summoned 
parliament after parliament to demand the aid of his people ; and 
these assemblies, imitating those of the last reign, accompanied 
every grant with petitions, which procured the confirmation of the 
statutes already enacted, and led to the acquisition of new and 
valuable privileges, still enjoyed by the house of commons at the 
present day. 

The duke of Lancaster conducted an army to Bretagne, be- 
sieged the town of St. Malo, lay during several weeks before the 

Hostilities be- walls, and then returned to England without fight- 

tween England , 1 • • • •< 

and France. mg the enemy, or achieving a single conquest. 

The Scots at the same time violated the truce, burned Roxbui'gh, 
and surprised Berwick, which was soon recovered by the earl of 
Northumberland. Several petty engagements were fought at sea 
by private adventurers. The French had successively obtained 
possession of every fortress in Bretagne, with the exception of 
Brest. Charles, flattering himself that he was secure of his con- 
quest, by a definitive judgment annexed the duchy to the French 
crown; a precipitate and injudicious measure, which instantly 
awakened all the national prejudices of the Bretons. They com- 
bined to assert their independence, recalled their duke, expelled 
the French, and earnestly solicited assistance from England. The 
first expedition under Sir John Arundel was dispersed by a storm, 
in which the general and the greater part of the men-at-arms 
perished. A second army was raised, and placed under the com- 
mand of the earl of Buckingham, the king's uncle. He crossed 
from Dover to Calais, and directed his march through the heart 
of France. Charles soon died, the Bretons transferred their 
jealousy from the French to their allies; and peace was made 
with the regency which governed France during the minority of 
Charles VI. 

At this period a secret ferment seems to have pervaded the 
mass of the people in many nations of Europe. Men were no 
Discontent among longer willing to submit to the impositions of their 
people. rulers, or to wear the chains which had been thrown 

round the necks of their fathers by a warlike and haughty aris- 
tocracy. In England a spirit of discontent agitated the whole 



1381 A. D.] RICHARD THE SECOND. 237 

body of the villeins or bondsmen, who remained in almost the 
same situation in which we left them at the Norman conquest. 
They now rose, and by their union and perseverance contrived to 
intimidate their lords, and set at defiance the severity of the law. 
The revolt began in Essex, and in a few clays all that county 
was in a state of insurrection, under the command of an ill-con- 
ducted priest, who had assumed the name of Jack Straw. 

The men of Kent were not long behind their neighbors in 
Essex. At Dartford one of the collectors had demanded the tax 
for a young girl, the daughter of a tyler. Her The afrair at 
mother maintained that she was under the age re- Dartford - 
quired by the statute ; and the officer was proceeding to indecent 
conduct, when her father, who had just returned from work, 
killed him with a stroke from his hammer. His courage was ap- 
plauded by his neighbors. They swore that they would protect 
him from punishment, and by threats and promises secured the 
co-operation of all the villages in the western division of Kent. 

At Maidstone, they appointed Wat, the tyler of that town, 
leader of the commons of Kent. The mayor and aldermen of 
Canterbury were compelled to swear fidelity to the good cause ; 
several of the citizens were slain ; and five hundred The insurrec tj 0n 
joined them in their intended march toward Lon- of VVat T y ler - 
don. When they reached Blackheath, their numbers are said to 
have amounted to one hundred thousand men. To this lawless 
and tumultuous multitude one John Ball was appointed preacher, 
and assumed for the text of his first sermon the following lines : 

When Adam delved, and Eve span, 
Who was then the gentleman ? 

The king, with his cousin Henry, earl of Derby, Simon, arch- 
bishop of Canterbury and chancellor, and about one hundred Ser- 
jeants and knights, had left the castle of Windsor, and repaired 
for greater security to the Tower of London. The next morning, 
in his barge, he descended the river to receive the petitions of the 
insurgents. To the number of ten thousand, with two banners of 
St. George, and sixty pennons, they waited his arrival at Rother- 
hithe ; but their horrid yells and uncouth appearance so intimi- 
dated his attendants, that instead of permitting him to land, they 
took advantage of the tide, and returned with precipitation. Tyler 



238 HISTORY OF ENGJ-AND. [A. D. 1381. 



and Straw, irritated by this disappointment, led their men into 
London, where they demolished Newgate, and liberated the pri- 
soners, plundered and destroyed the magnificent palace of the 
Savoy, belonging to the duke of Lancaster, and burned the Temple 
with the books and records. To prove, however, that they had no 
views of private emolument, a proclamation was issued, forbidding 
any one to secrete part of the plunder ; and so severely was the 
prohibition enforced, that the plate was hammered and cut into 
small pieces, the precious stones were beaten to powder, and one 
of the rioters, who had concealed a silver cup in his bosom, was 
immediately thrown with his prize into the river. To every man 
whom they met they put the question, "With whom boldest 
thou V and unless he gave the proper answer, " With King 
Richard and the commons," he was instantly beheaded. 

The princess of Wales held a council with the ministers in the 

Tower ; and a resolution was taken to try the influence of promises 

The king meets and concessions. In the morning, the Tower-hill 

the insurgents at , . . . , . , , 

Mile-end. was seen covered with an immense multitude. A 

herald ordered them, by proclamation, to retire to Mile-end, 
where the king would assent to all their demands. Immediately 
the gates were thrown open; Richard with a few unarmed 
attendants rode forward ; the best-intentioned of the crowd 
followed him ; and at Mile-end he saw himself surrounded with 
sixty thousand petitioners. Their demands were reduced to four : 
the abolition of slavery ; the reduction of the rent of land to four- 
pence the acre ; the free liberty of buying and selling in all fairs 
and markets; and a general pardon for the past offences. A charter 
to that effect was granted ; and the whole body, consisting chiefly 
of the men of Essex and Hertfordshire, retired, bearing the king's 
banner, as a token that they were under his protection. 

But Tyler and Straw bad formed other and more ambitious de- 
signs. The moment the king was gone, they rushed at the head 
Conference at of four hundred men into the Tower, and killed the 

Smitlifield, and the , . . , , „ ., m , 

death of Tyler. archbishop and five others. 1 he next morning, as 
the king rode through Smitlifield with sixty horsemen, he en- 
countered Tyler at the head of twenty thousand insurgents. As 
soon as he saw Richard, he made a sign to his followers to halt, 
and boldly rode up to the king. A conversation immediately 
began; Tyler, as he talked, affected to play with his dagger; 



1382 A. D.] RICHARD THE SECOND. 239 



at last he laid his hand on the bridle of his sovereign ; but at the 
instant, Walworth, the lord mayor, jealous of his design, plunged 
a short sword in his throat. He spurred his horse, rode about a 
dozen yards, fell to the ground, and was despatched by Robert 
Standish, one of the king's esquires. The insurgents, who wit- 
nessed the transaction, drew their bows to revenge the fall of their 
leader, and Richard would inevitably have lost his life, had he not 
been saved by his own intrepidity. Galloping up to the archers, 
he exclaimed, " What are you doing, my lieges ? Tyler was a 
traitor. Come with me, and I will be your leader." Wavering 
and disconcerted, they followed him into the fields at Islington, 
whither a force of one thousand men-at-arms hastened to protect 
the young king; and the insurgents, falling on their knees, begged 
for mercy. Many of the royalists demanded permission to punish 
them for their past excesses ; but Richard firmly refused, and or- 
dered the suppliants to return to their homes. 

As soon as the death of Tyler and the dispersion of the men of 
Kent and Essex were known, thousands became eager to display 
their loyalty. At the head of forty thousand horse, The insurrection 
he published proclamations, revoking the charters suppressed. 
of manumission which he had granted. In several parts, the 
commons threatened to renew the horrors of the late tumult in 
defence of their liberties ; but the approach of the royal army dis- 
mayed them ; and numerous executions in different counties effec- 
tually crushed the spirit of resistance. 

When the parliament met, the two houses were informed by 
the chancellor, that the king had revoked the charters of emanci- 
pation which he had been compelled to grant to the villeins ; but 
at the same time wished to submit to their consideration, whether 
it might not be wise to abolish the state of bondage altogether. 
The minds of the great proprietors were not, however, prepared 
for the adoption of so liberal a measure ; and the charters were 
repealed by authority of parliament. 

In 1382, Richard married Anne of Bohemia, the daughter of 
the late emperor, Charles IV., a princess of great accomplishments, 
and of still greater virtue, who, during the twelve The marriage of 
years of their union, possessed the affections of her Kichard. 
husband, and after her death was long remembered by the people 
under the appellation of the " good Queen Anne." 



240 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1382. 



"While the principal nations of Europe were thus agitated by 
popular tumults, the Christian world had been thrown into con- 

Competitors for fusion by the opposite pretensions of two compcti- 
thepapaey. ^ ors f or ^ e papacy. Gregory XI., about seventy 

years after his predecessors had fixed their residence in France, 
returned, against the unanimous advice of the cardinals, to Home. 
At his death three-fourths of the Sacred College consisted of 
Frenchmen; and the Romans, jealous of their preponderance, 
surrounded the conclave, and with the most alarming menaces de- 
manded an Italian pope. To appease them, the archbishop of 
Bari was chosen, and assumed the name of Urban VI. For some 
months he exercised the pontifical authority without opposition ; 
but his severity alienated his friends and irritated his enemies ; 
the French cardinals seceded to Anagni ; and under pretence that 
the former election had been made through the influence of terror, 
chose another pontiff, the cardinal of Geneva, who called himself 
Clement VII. Clement was immediately acknowledged by France, 
and the allies of France, the kings of Scotland, Spain, Sicily, and 
Cyprus ; England and the rest of Europe continued in their obe- 
dience to Urban. From Rome and Avignon, their respective re- 
sidences, the two pontiffs launched their anathemas, and preached 
up crusades against one another. 

Before we proceed to the subsequent transactions of this reign, 
it will be proper to resume the history of Wycliffe. The insur- 
Histo of w rection of the commons had created a strong preju- 
liffe - dice against the new doctrines of that reformer. 

A few weeks before the death of the late king, eighteen proposi- 
tions, selected from the works and lectures of Wycliffe, had been 
laid before Gregory XL; and the writer was summoned to explain 
his opinions in the presence of the primate and of the bishop of 
London. At his trial he exhibited to the prelates a paper pro- 
fessing his readiness to submit to the correction of the church, and 
a revocation of whatever he might have taught contrary to the doc- 
trine of Christ. He then proceeds to explain, qualify, and defend 
his propositions ; and was dismissed, with an order to abstain 
from the use of language calculated to perplex and mislead the 
ignorant. Wycliffe died suddenly about two years afterward. 

The king had now reached his seventeenth year. The resolu- 
tion and intrepidity which he had displayed during the insurrec- 



1383 A. D.] RICHARD THE SECOND. 241 



tion seemed to portend a fortunate and glorious Real or pro- 
reign ; and the qualities of his heart were^recoin- *?^* Tkf'of 
mended by the superior beauty of his person and- Lancaster - 
the elegance of his manners. And yet his reign from this period 
became a succession of errors and misfortunes, which ultimately 
cost him his crown and life. His ministers were not selected from 
the higher classes in the state ; and the favor which they enjoyed 
was construed into a crime by the ancient families. This sys- 
tematic opposition to his favorites exasperated the king. At first, 
the duke of Lancaster had been the chief object of suspicion. 
The prince thought proper to seek an asylum at the Scottish court; 
nor did he return till the king by proclamation bore testimony to 
his innocence. Some time afterward, however, a Carmelite friar 
put into the king's hands the written particulars of a real or pre- 
tended conspiracy to place the crown on the head of Lancaster. 
Richard was advised to communicate it to the duke, who swore 
that it was false, offered to prove his innocence by battle, and re- 
quired that the informer might be committed to close custody for 
future examination. The friar persisted in his story, and was 
given to the care of Sir John Holand, (a son of the princess of 
Wales by her first husband,) who strangled him with his own 
hands. This murder did not remove the secret suspicions of 
Richard, but he dissembled ; and Lancaster crossed the sea to ob- 
tain a prolongation of the armistice. A resolution was, however, 
taken to arrest him on his return ; but he disappointed his ene- 
mies, and shut himself up in his strong castle of Pontefract, till 
the king's mother, by repeated journeys and entreaties, reconciled 
the uncle and nephew, and also obtained a full pardon for her own 
son, Sir John Holand. 

In consequence of a treaty concluded at Paris, the king of 
France had sent to Scotland an aid of one thousand men-at-arms. 
The allied forces, after some delay, burst at length Eicnard i nTat i es 
into Northumberland, and took three castles ; but Scotland. 
the approach of Richard with an army of eighty thousand men, 
compelled them to retire with precipitation. This was the first 
time that the young king had appeared at the head of an army. 
While he was at York his mother died. The king of Scots, sensi- 
ble of his inability, did not attempt to oppose the progress of the 
English army. Edinburgh, Dunfermline, Perth, and Dundee 

21 



242 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1383. 



were reduced to ashes ; and the vanguard had reached the walls 
of Aberdeen, when advice was received that the Scots were ra- 
vaging the counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland. The army 
was disbanded ; and the Scots and French boasted that the havoc 
which they had wrought in Cumberland and Westmoreland more 
than balanced the destruction caused by the English in Scotland. 
In the next parliament the king confirmed the honors which 
he had bestowed during the expedition. His uncles, the earls of 

The king con- Cambridge and Buckingham, had been created 
conferred. dukes of York and Gloucester. Henry of Boling- 

broke, son to the duke of Lancaster, and Edward Plantagenet, 
son to the duke of York, were made earls of Derby and Rutland. 
At the same time, to cut of the ambitious hopes of his uncle 
Lancaster, he declared Roger earl of March, the grandson of 
Lionel duke of Clarence, the presumptive heir to the throne. 

At this time an embassy from Portugal arrived in London, to 
solicit the aid of the duke of Lancaster in a quarrel between that 

Embassy from country and Castile. The duke accepted the pro- 
Portugai. posal with pleasure ; and Richard was glad of any 

pretext to remove him out of the kingdom. The expedition sailed 
to Portugal, where the duke was met by King John, and to cement 
their friendship, a marriage was celebrated between that prince and 
the eldest daughter of Lancaster. But the next campaign proved 
unfortunate. The English army wasted away; the conquests 
made in the last year were lost ; and the duke himself, to recover 
his health, was compelled to take up his residence in Guienne. 
But these disasters were repaired by his policy. The duke of 
Berri had proposed to marry Lancaster's only daughter by his 
present wife Constantia, and heiress to her mother's pretensions to 
the crown of Spain. Intelligence of this proposal was conveyed 
to the king of Castile, who took the alarm, and offered to compro- 
mise the existing quarrel by the marriage of Henry, his son and 
heir, to the same princess. The offer was accepted. Henry and 
Catherine were married, and created prince and princess of Astu- 
rias. Their issue reigned over Spain for many generations. 

Richard soon found reason to lament the absence of Lancaster, 
whose authority had hitherto checked the duke of Gloucester. 

The French form But that prince now assumed the ascendency; fo- 
vadiug'Kngiand. mented the discontent of the nobility ; new modelled 



1387 A. D.] RICHARD THE SECOND. 24o 

the government, and left to his nephew little more than the empty 
title of king. The French, encouraged by the absence of the 
army in Spain, had seriously formed the design of invading Eng- 
land. Their preparations of arms, provisions, and ship3 were im- 
mense. The earl of Arundel received the command of the English 
fleet, with instructions to destroy the ships of the enemy as soon 
as they had landed their forces. The confidence of the nation re- 
vived ; but the opportunity was seized by Gloucester to plot the 
overthrow of the administration. The intended invasion, from 
unforeseen occurrences, was delayed from week to week, till it be- 
came necessary to postpone it to the following year ; and Richard 
summoned a parliament to meet at Westminster, in which the 
two parties made the experiment of their strength. The session 
was opened by a speech from the chancellor, who informed tbe 
houses that the king intended to lead an army into France in sup- 
port of his right to the French crown ; and that if such a mea- 
sure met with their approbation, they must provide the funds ne- 
cessary to defray its expense. But the lords and commons, instead 
of applying to these subjects, presented a petition for the removal 
of the ministers. Richard retired to his palace at Eltham, and 
ordered the two houses to proceed to the consideration of the sup- 
ply. They refused to obey until he should grant their petition, 
and return to his parliament. After a struggle of almost three 
weeks, he came to Westminster, and dismissed the obnoxious 
ministers. But this condescension encouraged his adversaries; 
and the commons impeached the late chancellor. He was acquit- 
ted on four charges ; on the others his answers were pronounced 
insufficient; and he was therefore adjudged to pay a fine, and to 
be confined in prison during the king's pleasure. Soon after the 
dissolution of the parliament he was released. 

The objects of the party in opposition to the court more clearly 
unfolded themselves, and it was proposed to establish a perma- 
nent council, with powers to reform the state of contest with the 
the nation. To such a measure the king declared P arliam ent. 
that he would never give his assent, and threatened to dissolve 
the parliament. At length, when one of the lords represented tc 
him that if he should persist in his refusal, his life would be in 
danger, his obstinacy was subdued j and with a reluctant hand 
he signed a commission to inquire into all the alleged grievances, 



244 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1387 



and to provide such remedies as should appear good. The com- 
missioners commenced their labors with examining the revenue 
accounts ; and the sequel affords a strong presumption that the 
royal administration had been foully calumniated ; for we hear 
not of any frauds discovered, or of defaulters punished, or of 
grievances redressed. The earl of Arundel alone, who had been 
appointed admiral of the fleet, reflected a lustre on the new ad- 
ministration, by some very bold achievements on the French 
coast. 

Richard had now reached his twentieth year, and resolved to 
emancipate himself from the actual control of the commissioners. 

The king and He made a journey through England, and wherever 
the judges. he camGj his arrival was distinguished by some act 

of grace. He held a council of several judges at Nottingham, in 
which he enjoined them, on their allegiance, to inform him what 
was the law of the land on the different questions which should 
be laid before them. In their reply they maintained, that the 
commission which had superseded the king in the exercise of the 
royal authority was subversive of the constitution. They affixed 
their seals to this answer, and promised on their oaths to keep it 
secret ; but the next day it was betrayed by Sir Roger Fulthorpe, 
one of the number, to the earl of Kent, and was by him commu- 
nicated to the duke of Gloucester. 

Richard, ignorant of this unfortunate discovery, proceeded to 
make arrangements to secure a majority in the next house of 
commons. The commission was to expire on the 19th of Novem- 
ber, 1387, and on the 10th Richard entered the capital. He was 
received with unusual expressions of joy and respect; the mayor 
and principal citizens wore the livery of white and crimson ; and 
an immense crowd accompanied him to the church of St. Paul's, 
and thence to his palace at Westminster. 

Elated with his reception, the king retired to rest; the next 
morning he learned with astonishment that a numerous body of 

The king's fa- forces had reached the neighborhood of London 
treason. under the command of the duke of Gloucester and 

the earls of Arundel and Nottingham, the constable, admiral, and 
marshal of England. The ensuing day they were joined by the 
earls of Derby and Warwick ; and these five noblemen accused 
five of the king's favorites with treason. Richard, unable to re« 



1887 A. D.] RICHARD THE SECOND. 245 

sist, received thera on the next Sunday. They began with the 
most solemn protestations of attachment and loyalty ; then ac- 
cused of treason the archbishop of York, the duke of Ireland, the 
earl of Suffolk, Sir Robert Tresilian, and Sir Nicholas Brembre. 
Richard answered, that he would summon a parliament, in which 
justice should be done. 

It now became evident that flight alone could save the ob- 
noxious councillors. The earl of Suffolk reached France; the 
archbishop concealed himself in Newcastle ; and the duke of Ire- 
land repaired to the northern borders of Wales. Here, however, 
he received letters from the king, authorizing him to raise forces, 
and promising to join him on the first opportunity. With joy 
he unfurled the royal banner ; and his hopes were encouraged by 
the accession of Molyneux, the constable of Chester. In a meet- 
ing at Huntingdon, Gloucester agreed with the earls of Arundel 
and Warwick and Sir Thomas Mortimer, to depose Ear i s f Anm- 
Richard, and take the crown under their own cus- agree^t^ depose 
tody. Their intention was defeated by the opposi- Richard - 
tion of the earls of Derby and Nottingham. In the mean time, 
the duke of Ireland, at the head of five thousand men, rapidly 
advanced toward the Thames ; but Gloucester and his friends, 
acquainted with his motions, marched in the night by different 
roads from the neighborhood of London, occupied all the passes 
before his arrival, and in the first contest defeated him. On 
their return to London, Gloucester and Derby took from the 
mayor the keys of the city, and required an audience of the king, 
who had retired into the Tower. The intimidated monarch 
yielded to all their demands, and assented to the arrest of his 
friends. 

As soon as the parliament met, Gloucester exhibited articles 
of impeachment against the five who had been accused of trea- 
son : the latter, with the exception of Sir Nicholas Articles of hn- 
Brembre, who was in prison, were called, but did peachment. 
not answer to their names ; and judgment was immediately prayed 
against them for their default. But the decision was put off till 
the next day ; and all the judges, with the exception of Sir Wil- 
liam Skipwith, were arrested by Gloucester's orders, on their 
seats in court, and committed to separate cells in the Tower. 

The next morning, the king called upon the judges to give to 
21* 



24G HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1387. 



the lords their opinion respecting the bill of impeachment ; whc 
unanimously declared that it was illegal. The peers, however, 
resolved to proceed, and again demanded judgment; but the 
house adjourned till the next day, when the demand was re- 
peated, and the primate instantly rising, observed, that the canons 
forbade the clergy to interfere in judgments of blood. All the 
bishops and abbots immediately left the house. 

Eight days were spent in examining the bill of impeachment. 
Of the articles in this instrument, fourteen were declared to 
amount to treason ; the accused were found guilty of them all ; 
and the duke, the earl, and Tresilian were separately adjudged 
to suffer death. The case of the archbishop of York was re- 
served. Of the victims, three were already beyond their reach. 
The earl of Suffolk had arrived at Paris; the duke of Ireland 
had found an asylum in Holland ; and the archbishop was still 
concealed in Northumberland ; but Tresilian and Brembre were 
executed. 

For nearly twelve months Richard continued a mere cipher in 
the hands of the party. The duke governed with greater lenity 
than might have been expected from his vindictive disposition ; 
but his administration was not distinguished by any act of suffi- 
cient importance to dazzle the eyes of the nation, or to give sta- 
bility to his power. The terror which Gloucester had inspired 
insensibly wore away ; several of his partisans offered their ser- 
vices to the king; and Eichard, by one bold action, instanta- 
neously dissolved that authority which had been cemented with 
so much blood. In a great council held after Easter, he unex- 
pectedly requested his uncle to tell him his age. " Your high- 
ness," the duke replied, " is in your twenty-second year." 
"Then," added the king, "I must certainly be old enough to 
manage my own concerns. I thank ye, my lords, for your past 
services, but do not require them any longer." A new treasurer 
and new chancellor were appointed ; the former council was dis- 
missed, and the king gave his confidence to a few tried friends, 
with the duke of York and the young earl of Derby, who, though 
they originally belonged to the commission, had either never for- 
feited, or had regained the royal favor. Gloucester submitted 
with reluctance, and after an interview with his nephew, retired 
into the country. 



1394 A. D.] RICHARD THE SECOND. 247 

The king was now his own master, and for some years his ad- 
ministration was tranquil and happy. He preserved uninter- 
rupted harmony between himself and his people. The kjng enjoyg 
Though he retained a deep sense of the injuries tranquillity, 
which he had suffered, he had the prudence to suppress his re- 
sentment; and on the return of the duke of Lancaster from 
G-uienne, recalled the duke of Gloucester to a seat in the 
council. 

A long and angry controversy took place at this time respect- 
ing the appointment of English bishops, which ended entirely to 
the advantage of the crown ; for though the right of election re- 
mained to the clergy, it was merely nominal, as they dared not 
reject the person recommended by the king; and though the 
pope still conferred the great dignities of the church by " pro- 
vision," the " provisor" was invariably the person who had been 
nominated by the crown. 

If the war between the kings of England and France still con- 
tinued, it was more from the difficulty of adjusting their differ- 
ences than from any real enmity between the two i re i a nd at this 
monarchs. Of late, hostilities had been suspended P eriod - 
by a succession of negotiations which, in 1394, terminated in a 
truce for four years. Soon afterward, Richard was deprived of 
his consort, the good queen Anne, who died at his palace of 
Shene, and was interred at Westminster. The king appeared in- 
consolable ; and to divert his melancholy, was advised to visit his 
Irish dominions. They had formerly produced . a yearly income 
of thirty thousand pounds ; now the receipts were not equal to 
the ordinary expenses of the government. To understand the 
cause of this defalcation, we must take a hasty review of the past 
transactions in Ireland. After the fall of Bruce, the second Ed- 
Ward was too much occupied by his domestic enemies, the third 
by his wars with Scotland and France, to attend to the concerns 
of the sister island ; and the natives, by successive encroach- 
ments, gradually confined the English territories within narrower 
limits. The greater part of Ulster was recovered by the O'Nials ; 
the O'Connors won several districts in Connaught; and in Lein- 
ster the O'Brians maintained with perseverance, and often with 
success, the cause of Irish independence. Had the natives 
united in one common effort, they might have driven the in- 



248 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1394. 



vaders into the ocean ; but they lost the glorious opportunity by 
their own dissensions and folly. Their hostilities were generally 
the sudden result of a particular provocation, not of any plan for 
the liberation of the island; their arms were as often turned 
against their own countrymen as against their national enemies ; 
and several septs received annual pensions from the English go- 
vernment as the price of their services in protecting the borders 
from the inroads of the more hostile Irish. 

Neither did the English pale present a scene of less anarchy 
and disunion. The settlers were divided into two classes, the 
English by race and the English by birth. The 
p ' former were the descendants of the first invaders, 
and considered themselves as the rightful heirs to the lands and 
emoluments which had been won by the swords of their progeni- 
tors. The farther they were removed from their seat of govern- 
ment, the less did they respect its authority ; and, as they lived 
in the constant violation of the English laws, naturally sought to 
emancipate themselves from their control. Hence many adopted 
the dress, the manners, the language, and the laws of the natives, 
and were insensibly transformed from English barons into Irish 
chieftains. Of these, the most powerful was Thomas Fitz-Mau- 
rice, who collected, without distinction of country, every adven- 
turer under his standard ; expelled the English settlers who re- 
fused to conform to his wishes ; encouraged intermarriages with 
the natives, and established among his dependants the customs 
of tanistry and gavelkind. Yet such was the weakness of the 
government, that to secure his fidelity, he was created earl of 
Desmond, and his possessions were erected into a county palatine. 
The English by birth comprised the persons born in England 
whom the king had invested with office in Ireland, and the 
The English by cr0 ^ s of adventurers whom penury or crime an- 
birth - nually banished from their own country. To the 

old settlers they were objects of peculiar jealousy and hatred; by 
the government they were trusted and advanced, as a counterpoise 
to the disaffection of the others. Edward III. had gone so far 
as to forbid any person to hold office under the Irish government 
who was not an Englishman, and possessed of lands, tenements, 
or benefices in England ; but the prohibition aroused the indig- 
nation of the English by race ; in defiance of his authority, they 



1394 A. D.] RICHARD THE SECOND. 249 

assembled in convention at Kilkenny, and so spirited were their 
remonstrances, that he revoked the order, and confirmed to them 
the rights which they had inherited from their ancestors. 

Edward had appointed his son Lionel, duke of Clarence, to the 
government of Ireland. The prince landed with an army, ob- 
tained some advantages over the natives, and left The gtatute of 
the island, having rather inflamed than appeased Kilkenny, 
the jealousy between the two parties. Some years later he re- 
turned ; a parliament was held under his influence ; and the re- 
sult was the celebrated statute of Kilkenny. Its provisions were 
directed not against the natives but the descendants of the Eng- 
lish settlers, who, " to the ruin of the common weal, had rejected 
the laws of England for those of Ireland." It enacted that mar- 
riage, nurture of children, and gossipred with the Irish, should for 
the future subject the offender to the penalties of high treason ; 
and that the Englishman who should adopt an Irish name, or the 
Irish language, or the Irish dress, should be constrained by im- 
prisonment or forfeiture to give security that he would conform 
to the manners of his own country. It was, however, declared 
high treason for any Englishman to decline the authority of his 
own laws, and submit his cause to the decision of the Brehon 
judges. 

Still the former dissensions prevailed among the strangers, and 
the Irish gradually extended their conquests. To restore tran- 
quillity, Richard, in his ninth year, created the Bichard lands in 
earl of Oxford, his favorite, marquis of Dublin, Ir eiand. 
and afterward duke of Ireland ; bestowed on him the government 
of Ireland for life; and granted to him and his heirs all the 
lands which he should conquer from the natives, with the excep- 
tion of such as had already been annexed to the crown, or con- 
ferred on former adventurers. Thirty thousand marks were 
allotted for the expedition by the parliament and the most san- 
guine hopes of success were generally cherished — when the whole 
plan was defeated by the dissension between the king and his 
barons, and the subsequent exile and death of the duke. Now, 
however, the moment seemed to be arrived when the English 
ascendency might be restored, and the natives reduced to the 
most complete submission. With four thousand men-at-arms 
and thirty thousand archers, Richard landed at Waterford ; the 



250 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1395 

duke of Gloucester, the earls of Kutland and Nottingham, aided 
him with their advice ; and though the state of the country, in- 
tersected with lakes, morasses, and forests, impeded his progress 
— though the enemy, by retiring into inaccessible fortresses, 
shunned his approach — yet, in a short time, the idea of resistance 
was abandoned. The northern chieftains met the king at Droghe- 
da; the southern attended his deputy, the earl of Nottingham, 
at Carlow ; and all, seventy-five in number, did homage, promised 
to keep the peace, and submitted to pay a yearly tribute. The 
four principal kings, O'Nial, O'Connor, O'Brian, and McMurchad, 
followed Richard to Dublin, where they were instructed in the 
manners of the English by Sir Henry Christal ; submitted to re- 
ceive, though with some reluctance, the honor of knighthood, 
and, arrayed in robes of state, were feasted at the king's table. 
Grievances were redressed, the laws enforced, tyrannical officers 
removed, and the minds of the natives became somewhat more 
reconciled to the English. 

But while the king was thus establishing his power in Ireland, 
he was suddenly recalled to his English dominions. The dis- 
The disciples of °ipl es °f Wycliffe, under the denomination of Lol- 
Wyciiffe. lards, had seized the opportunity of his absence to 

commence a fierce attack upon the revenues and the discipline of 
the church, and had prepared an inflammatory petition, which 
was to be presented to the house of commons. No one was 
found to present the petition ; but the prelates solicited the pro- 
tection of the king, who at his return to London, severely repri- 
manded the patrons of- the Lollards, and ordered their teachers to 
be expelled from the university of Oxford. 

On the death of his queen, Richard solicited the hand of Isa- 
bella, the daughter of Charles VI., a princess in her eighth year. 
Richard marries His offer was accepted, and the truce already 
Isabella. existing between the two kingdoms was prolonged 

for twenty-eight years. Richard sailed to France to receive the 
princess ; the kings feasted each other in their pavilions between 
Ardrea and Calais ; the marriage ceremony was performed by the 
archbishop of Canterbury, and the young queen was afterward 
crowned with the usual magnificence at Westminster. 

This alliance with the royal family of France encouraged 
Richard to execute a scheme of vengeance which he had lomj 



1397 A. D.] RICHARD THE SECOND. 251 

cherished within his own breast, but which it had been prudent 
to conceal. His mind was perpetually harassed by what he 
saw and heard of Gloucester's conduct; a repetition of petty 
injuries kept alive his resentment, and the memory of the past 
urged him to get rid of a prince who still continued to display 
the same hostility to his sovereign. Richard caused him to be 
arrested, and to be delivered to the custody of the Duke of giou- 
earl of Nottingham, earl marshal. That nobleman dies in prison, 
pretended to conduct him to the Tower; but when they had 
reached the Thames, he put him on board a ship, sailed down the 
river, and lodged his prisoner in the castle of Calais, of which he 
was governor. Richard repaired to the castle of Nottingham, 
where it was determined to copy the former example of the pri- 
soners, and to " appeal" th'em of treason. The time of trial was 
fixed for the ensuing parliament. 

When parliament met, the earl marshal received an order to bring 
his prisoner, the duke of Gloucester, to the bar of the house, that 
he might reply to the "appeal" of treason. Three days later 
an answer was returned, that the duke had died. The time, the 
place, the suddenness of the death, will create a suspicion that 
this unfortunate prince had been murdered ; and in the next reign 
it was pretended that Richard had sent assassins to Calais, by 
whom the duke was smothered between two beds. The duke was 
declared to have been a traitor, and all his property confiscated to 
the crown. 

Richard having punished many other noblemen, saw himself 
triumphant over all his opponents. The last of the lords appel- 
lants had been banished; and even his uncles, The deS p 0tism 
through affection or fear, seconded all his mea- of Richard - 
sures. He had attained what seems for some time to have been the 
great object of his policy. He had placed himself above the con- 
trol of the law. But he had forfeited all that popularity which 
he had earned, and the security in which he indulged hurried 
him on to other acts of despotism, which inevitably led to his 
ruin. He raised money by forced loans; he compelled the judges 
to expound the law according to his own prejudices; and, that he 
might obtain a more plentiful harvest of fines, put seventeen 
counties out of the protection of the law, under the pretence that 
they had favored his enemies. 



252 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1399 



The duke of Lancaster died in 1399, and his son, though an 
exile, expected to succeed to the estates of his father. But Richard 
The death of maintained that his banishment, like an outlawry, 
Lancaster. h a( j rendered him incapable of inheriting property. 

This iniquitous proceeding seems to have exhausted the patience 
of the nation, for Henry (on the death of his father he had as- 
sumed the title of duke of Lancaster) had long been the idol of 
the people. Consultations were held ; plans were formed ; the dis- 
positions of the great lords were sounded ; and the whole nation 
appeared in a ferment. Yet it was in this moment, so pregnant 
with danger, that the infatuated monarch determined to leave his 
kingdom, to avenge his cousin and heir, the earl of March, who 
had been surprised and slain by a party of Irish. 

Having appointed his uncle, the duke of York, regent, during 
his absence, the king proceeded to Bristol, where the report of 
Richard proceeds pl° ts an( l conspiracies reached him, and was re- 
to Ireland. ceived with contempt. At Milford Haven he 

joined his army, and embarking in a fleet of two hundred sail, 
arrived in two days in the port of Waterford. His cousin the 
duke of Albemarle had been ordered to follow with a hundred 
more ; and three weeks were consumed in waiting for that noble- 
man, whose delay was afterward attributed to a secret under- 
standing with the king's enemies. At length, Richard led his 
forces against the Irish. But while he was thus occupied with 
objects of inferior interest in Ireland, a revolution occurred in 
England which eventually deprived him both of his crown and 
his life. 

When the king sailed to Ireland, Henry of Bolingbroke, the 
new duke of Lancaster, resided in Paris, where he was hospitably 
Henry, duke of entertained, but at the same time narrowly watch- 
England. ' ed by the French monarch. To elude the suspi- 
cions of the French ministers, Henry procured permission to visit 
the duke of Bretagne ; and on his arrival at Nantes, hired three 
small vessels, with which he sailed from Vannes to seek his for- 
tune in England. After hovering for some days on the eastern 
coast, he landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire, and was joined by 
the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland; before whom 
he declared upon oath, that his only object was to recover the 
honors and estates which had belonged to his father. 



1399 A. D.] 



RICHARD THE SECOND. 



253 



The duke of York, to whom the king had intrusted the govern- 
ment during his absence, was accurately informed of his motions, 
and had summoned the retainers of the crown to join the royal 
standard at St. Alban's. The earl of Wiltshire had been ap- 
pointed to wait on the young queen at Wallingforcl ; but fled with 
precipitation to Bristol. York himself followed with the army 
in the same direction. It might be that, to relieve insurrection in 
himself from responsibility, he wished to be in England. 
readiness to deliver up the command on the expected arrival of 
Richard from Ireland ; but at the same time he left open the road 
from Yorkshire to the metropolis, and allowed the adventurer to 
pursue his object without impediment. Henry was already on 
his march, and the small number of forty followers, with whom he 
had landed, swelled by the time that he had reached St. Alban's 
to sixty thousand men. He was received in London by a proces- 
sion of the clergy and people, with addresses of congratulation, 
and presents, and offers of service. His stay in the capital was 
short. He turned to the west, and entered Evesham on the same 
day on which York reached Berkeley. After an interchange of 
messages, they met in the church of the castle; and, before they 
separated, the doom of Richard was sealed. York united his 
force with that of Henry, and caused Sir Peter Courtenay, who 
held the castle of Bristol, to open its gates. The duke of York 
remained at Bristol; Henry with his own forces proceeded to 
Chester, to secure that city, and awe the men of Cheshire, the 
most devoted adherents to the king. 

We may now return to Richard in Ireland. Henry had been 
in England a fortnight before the king heard of his landing. The 
intelligence appears to have provoked indignation Ricna rd returns 
as much as alarm. But he referred the matter to to Ens 1 ^- 
his council, and was advised to cross over to England with the 
ships which had brought Albemarle. That nobleman diverted 
him from this intention. The earl of Salisbury received orders 
to sail, and to summon to the royal standard the natives of Wales ; 
Richard promised to follow in the fleet from Waterford in the 
course of six days. The earl obeyed; the men of Wales and 
Cheshire answered the call; and a gallant host collected at Con- 
way. But Richard appeared not according to his promise ; dis- 
tressing reports were circulated among the troops ; and the royal- 

22 



254 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



[A. D. 1399. 



ists, having waited for him almost a fortnight, dishancled in spite 
of the tears and entreaties of their commander. At last, on the 
eighteenth day, the king arrived in Milford Haven with several 
thousands of the troops who had accompanied him to Ireland. 
With such a force, had it been faithful, he might have made a 
stand against his antagonist ; but on the second morning when he 
arose, he observed from his window that the greater part had dis- 
appeared. A council was immediately summoned, and a proposal 
made that the king should flee by sea to Bourdeaux; but the 
duke of Exeter objected that to quit the kingdom in such circum- 
stances was to abdicate the throne. His opinion prevailed, and 
at nightfall the king, in the disguise of a Franciscan friar, stole 
away from the army toward Conway. His flight was soon 
known. The royal treasure, which Richard left behind him, was 
plundered; Albemarle, Worcester, and most of the leaders, 
hastened to pay their court to Henry, and the rest attempted in 
small bodies to make their way to their own counties. 

The royal party reached Conway, where, instead of a numer- 
ous force, they found only the earl of Salisbury with a hundred 
The kins is taken men - I n this emergency the king's brothers un- 
duct°ed er to a the C eas- dertook to visit Henry at Chester, and to sound his 
tie of Hint. intentions. When the two dukes were admitted 

into the presence of Henry, they bent the knee, and acquainted 
him with their message from the king. He took little notice of 
Surrey, but leading Exeter aside, spoke to him in private. He 
was gratified to learn from the envoys the place of Richard's re- 
treat, and detained them at Chester, that the king, instead of 
making his escape, might await their return. He despatched the 
earl of Northumberland at the head of four hundred men-at-arms 
and a thousand archers to Conway, with instructions not to dis- 
play his force, lest the king should put to sea, but by artful 
speeches and promises to draw him out of the fortress, and then 
to make him prisoner. The earl took possession in his journey 
of the castles of Flint and Rhuddlan ; and a few miles beyond 
the latter, placing his men in concealment under a rock, rode for- 
ward with only five attendants to Conway. He was readily ad- 
mitted; and to the king's aDxious inquiries about his brothers, 
replied, that he had left them well at Chester, and had brought a 
letter from the duke of Exeter. In it that nobleman said, or 



1399 A. D.] RICHARD THE SECOND. 255 

rather was made to say, that full credit might be given to the 
offers of the bearer. These offers were, that Richard should 
promise to govern and judge his people by law, and that Henry 
should be made grand justiciary of the kingdom. Richard ex- 
pressed his approbation of the articles, and departed soon after- 
ward toward Flint to meet Henry, according to an arrangement. 
They came to a steep declivity, to the left of which was the sea, 
and on the right a lofty rock, overhanging the road. The king 
dismounted, and was descending on foot, when he suddenly ex- 
claimed : "lam betrayed. God of paradise, assist me ! Do you 
not see banners and pennons in the valley?" Northumberland 
with eleven others met them at the moment, and 
affected to be ignorant of the circumstance. "Earl 
of Northumberland," said the king, "if I thought you capable 
of betraying me, it is not too late to return." " You cannot re- 
turn," the earl replied, seizing the king's bridle; "I have pro- 
mised to conduct you to the duke of Lancaster." By this time 
he was joined by a hundred lances and two hundred archers on 
horseback ; and Richard, seeing it impossible to escape, exclaim- 
ed : " May God reward you and your accomplices at the last 
day !" and then turning to his friends, added, " We are betray- 
ed ; but remember that our Lord was also sold, and delivered into 
the hands of his enemies." 

They reached Flint in the evening. The unfortunate king rose 
after a sleepless night, heard mass, and ascended the tower to 
watch the arrival of his opponent. At length, he saw the army, 
amounting to eighty thousand men, winding along the beach till 
it reached the castle, and surrounded it from sea to sea. He was 
soon summoned into the court to receive the duke of Lancaster. 
Henry came forward in complete armor, with the exception of his 
helmet. As soon as he saw the king, he bent his knee and ad- 
vancing a few paces, he repeated his obeisance with his cap in 
his hand. 

" Fair cousin of Lancaster," said Richard, uncovering himself, 
"you are right welcome." "My lord," answered the duke, "I 
am come before my time. But I will show you the reason. Your 
people complain that for the space of twenty or two-and-twenty 
years, you have ruled them rigorously; but, if it please God, I 



256 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1399. 



will help you to govern better." The king replied, " Fair cousin, 
since it pleaseth you, it pleaseth us well." 

Henry dismissed the greater part of his army, and conducted 
his prisoner to the capital. The king was sent to Westminster, 
and thence on the following day to the Tower. 

Henry now aspired to exchange the coronet of a duke for the 
crown of a king. After several consultations it was resolved to 
combine a solemn renunciation of the royal authority on the part 
of Richard with an act of deposition on the part of the two houses 
Henry aspires to of parliament. The next day [30th of Septern- 
is deposed. ber, 1399] the two houses met amid a great con- 

course of people in Westminster Hall. The duke occupied his 
usual seat near the throne, which was empty and covered with 
cloth of gold. A document purporting to be the resignation of 
the king was read ; each member standing in his place signified 
his acceptance of it aloud ; and the people with repeated shouts 
expressed their approbation. Henry now proceeded to the second 
part of his plan, the act of deposition. For this purpose the 
coronation oath was first read; thirty-three articles of impeach- 
ment followed, in which it was contended that Richard had 
violated that oath ; and thence it was concluded that he had by 
his misconduct forfeited his title to the throne. The bishop of 
Carlisle, to the astonishment of the Lancastrians, rose, and de- 
manded for Richard what ought not to be refused to the meanest 
criminal, the right of being confronted with his accusers; and 
for parliament what it might justly claim, the opportunity of 
learning from the king's own mouth, whether the resignation of 
the crown, which had been attributed to him, were his own 
spontaneous act. The house, however, voted the deposition of 
Richard; and eight commissioners ascending a tribunal erected 
before the throne, pronounced him [30th Sept., 1399] degraded 
from the state and authority of king. 

By the law of succession the throne belonged to the descendants 
of Lionel, the third son of Edward III. ; and their claim, it is 
said, had been formally recognised in parliament. All waited in 
nenry assumes anxious suspense, till the duke, rising from his seat, 
the title of lung. anc | forming with great solemnity the sign of the 
cross on his forehead and breast, pronounced the following words : 
" In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I, Henry of 



1399 A. D.] RICHARD THE SECOND. 257 



Lancaster, claim this realm of England." Both houses admitted 
the claim unanimously. The archbishop of Canterbury now took 
him by the hand, and led him to the throne. He knelt for a few 
minutes in prayer on the steps, arose, and was seated in it by the 
two archbishops. 

With the authority of Richard had expired that of the parlia- 
ment and of the royal officers. Henry immediately summoned 
the same parliament to meet again in six days, appointed new 
officers of the crown, and as soon as he had received their oaths, 
retired in state to the royal apartments. Thus ended this event- 
ful day, with the deposition of Richard of Bourdeaux, and the suc- 
cession of his cousin, Henry of Bolingbroke. 

The features of Richard were handsome, but feminine ; his 
manners abrupt; his utterance embarrassed. He possessed some 
taste for literature, and occasionally gave indications of resolution 
and spirit. But he was passionately fond of parade character of 
and pleasure ; and the loss of his crown has been Rich ard. 
sometimes attributed to his extravagance and pecuniary exactions. 
It would, however, be difficult to prove that his expenses were 
greater than those of his predecessors ; it is certain that his de- 
mands on the purses of his subjects were considerably less. 
" What concern have you," he once observed to the commons, 
" with the establishment of my household, as long as I maintain 
it without asking you for assistance?" His misfortunes may be 
more correctly traced to the early age at which he mounted the 
throne, and to the precautions taken by his mother and her friends 
to defeat the supposed designs of his uncles. By these he was 
estranged from the princes of his blood, whose pride refused to 
pay court to a boy ; and whose neglect compelled him to fix his 
affections on his ministers and companions. Jealousies and 
rivalry ensued, which ended in the celebrated commission of go- 
vernment, and the ruin, perhaps originally undeserved, of the 
royal favorites. When the king had recovered the exercise of his 
authority, he reigned in comparative tranquillity for a long period; 
but his conduct in the twenty-first and twenty-second years of his 
reign betrayed such a thirst for revenge, such habits of dissimu- 
lation, such despotic notions of government, and so fixed a pur- 
pose of ruling without control, that no reader can be surprised at 
the catastrophe which followed. We may, indeed, abhor the wiJes 

22* 



058 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1399. 



by which he was ensnared; may sympathize with him in his 
prison ; and may condemn the policy which afterward bereaved 
him of life; but at the same time we must acknowledge that he 
deserved to be abandoned by the people, on whose liberties he 
had trampled, and to forfeit that authority which he sought to 
exalt above the laws and constitution of his country. 



CHAPTER XXL 

funrg tire jfflttrilj. 

Surnamed of Bolinghroke. 
CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. 


Scotland, 


France 




Robert III. 


Charles VI. 


Boniface IX. 


James I. 




Innocent VII. 


Germany. 




Gregory XII. 


Winceslaus. 


Spain. 


Alexander V. 


Robert, 


Henry III. 


John XXIII. 


Sigismund. 





Coronation of the king — The death of Richard — Henry invades Scotland — 
Rebellion of the Percies, and that of Glendower — Transactions with France 
—The death of Henry.— From A. D. 1399 to 1413. 

The new king assumed the name of Henry IV., and was 

crowned within a fortnight after the deposition of his predecessor. 

The new parii^- The new parliament had already assembled; and, 

inent: its proceed- , . . ....... 

ings. as the members were the same individuals who sat 

in the last, they displayed an equal obsequiousness to the will of 
the monarch. The attainders of the earls of Arundel and War- 
wick were reversed. Henry's eldest son was created prince of 
Wales, duke of Guienne, Lancaster, and Cornwall, and earl of 
Chester, and was declared in parliament the apparent heir to the 
throne. The lords who had formerly " appealed" the duke of 
Gloucester and his associates of treason, were now summoned to 
justify their conduct. They all made the same defence, that 



1400 A. D.] HENRY THE FOURTH. 259 

they had neither advised nor framed the appeal. Disputes arose, 
but Henry by his authority silenced them, and a compromise was 
effected, by which the lords appellants forfeited the honors and 
the estates which they had obtained from Richard in reward of 
their appeal. 

To prevent the recurrence of those vindictive proceedings which 
had twice disgraced the last reign, several useful statutes were 
enacted. One confined the guilt of treason to the offences 
enumerated in the celebrated act of Edward III. ; another 
abolished appeals of treason in parliament, and sent the accuser 
to the established courts of law ; and another forbade, under the 
heaviest penalties, any person besides the king to give liveries to 
his retainers. 

Before the close of the session, the earl of Northumberland 
delivered to the lords a message, asking their ad- riichard 5mpr ;. 
vice respecting the future treatment of the deposed soned for Iife - 
monarch, whose life the king was resolved to preserve at all 
events. They answered that he should be conducted secretly to 
some castle, where no concourse of people could assemble ; should 
be placed under the custody of trusty officers ; and should be 
excluded from all communication with those who had formerly 
been in his service. Four days later, the king came to the house, 
adjudged the unfortunate Richard to imprisonment for life, and 
ordered him to be guarded in the manner suggested by the lords. 

Henry was now in possession of the grand object of his am- 
bition ; but he soon learned that it was more easy to win the 
crown than to retain it. The hostility of foreign princes, who 
continued to treat him as an usurper, and the wavering fidelity of 
his own subjects, of whom some panted to revenge Frequent con- 
the wrongs of the late king, and others were dis- the life of Henry, 
contented that their services had not been more amply rewarded, 
kept him in a state of perpetual alarm. During the lapse of nine 
years, he was constantly harassed, sometimes by secret attempts 
on his life, sometimes by overt acts of rebellion ; on one occasion 
by the inroads of the Scots, and on another by the descents of the 
French ; but his power seemed to grow with his difficulties, and 
by his vigilance, temper, and activity, he not only succeeded in 
keeping the crown on his own head, but peaceably transmitted it 
to his posterity. The first attempt against him was made by five 



260 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1400. 

of the lords appellants, who had so narrowly escaped with their 
lives in the last parliament. Within a month after its disso- 
lution, they agreed to hold a tournament at Oxford, and employ 
that opportunity to seize the person of the king, and subsequently 
to proclaim and liberate Richard. The conspirators were arrested, 
tried, and executed; and this premature and ill-concerted con- 
spiracy strengthened the throne of the new king. But he had 
still reason to fear the hostility of a dangerous adversary, the 
king of France, who had been deeply offended by the deception 
practised upon him by Henry at his departure from Paris. At 
first he had an intention of sending ambassadors to the parliament; 
but this design was soon abandoned ; the voice of his people pro- 
nounced in favor of war. To avert the threatened storm, Henry 
appointed commissioners to treat with Charles for a confirmation 
of the existing truce. They proceeded to Calais ; and a herald 
hastened to the capital to solicit a safe-conduct for the ambassadors 
of the king of England ; but Charles returned a peremptory re- 
fusal — he knew no king of England but Richard, his son-in-law. 
Charles, however, soon received intelligence which left no doubt 
on his mind that Richard was dead. All thought of war was in- 
stantly abandoned ; he had now nothing to fight for ; and on this 
account he signed an instrument stating that he should not dis- 
turb the truce. 

Hitherto, from the day on which Richard had been consigned to 
secret and perpetual confinement by advice of the lords, all trace 
The mysterious °^ n ^ m seeme( l to be lost. No man in England 
death of Mchard. pretended to know where he was, or in what man- 
ner he was treated. But after the public statement of his death 
by the king of France, the secret could be no longer kept. His 
dead body was conveyed with funeral pomp from the castle of 
Pontefract to the capital, and then, during two days on which it 
lay in St. Paul's, shown openly to the people ; that is, was exposed 
with the face bare from the eyebrows to the chin. Henry him- 
self attended the obsequies — with what feelings, must be left to 
the imagination of the reader. After the mass on the second day, 
the corpse was removed to the abbey church of Westminster ; a 
dirge was chanted ; and the procession moved forward to Richard's 
once favorite residence at Langley. There he was interred : the 
king perhaps feared the recollections which his tomb might some- 



1400 A. D.] HENRY THE FOURTH. 261 

times awaken, if he had been buried at Westminster. Richard 
may possibly have died of disease in his bed ; but the events im- 
mediately preceding provoke a suspicion that he owed the loss of 
his life to the order of the man who had already bereaved him of 
his crown. By some it was said that, on the eighth day after 
Henry's departure from Windsor, Sir Piers Exton with seven 
assassins entered his cell; that Richard, aware of their object, 
wrested a battle-axe from one of the number, and laid several at 
his feet ; but that Exton with one blow brought him to the floor, 
and with another deprived him of life. The more general belief 
was that the captive died of starvation : voluntary starvation, if 
we may give credit to the friends of Henry, in consequence of 
Richard's grief for the fate of his adherents ; compulsory starva- 
tion, if we listen to the opposite party, in consequence of orders 
given by him who hoped to profit by his death. But of this there 
is no proof. 

The new king determined to signalize the commencement of his 
reign by an expedition into Scotland. He summoned all persons 
possessed of fees, wages, or annuities, granted by Hem . y invades 
Edward III., the Black Prince, Richard II., or the Scotland. 
duke of Lancaster, to meet him at York, under the penalty of 
forfeiture ; and from the banks of the Tyne despatched heralds to 
King Robert and the barons of Scotland, commanding them to 
appear before him in the castle of Edinburgh, on the 23d of 
August, and do to him homage for the Scottish crown and their 
several fiefs. He marched to Leith without opposition ; but the 
castle of Edinburgh was in the hands of the duke of Rothsay, the 
eldest son of the king, who derided the pompous claim of his ad- 
versary. Henry waited several days in vain for the arrival of the 
Scottish army, and the English having consumed their provisions, 
retired in haste within their own borders. 

From Scotland the king's attention was suddenly diverted to 
the principality of Wales, where, during his absence, the standard 
of independence had been raised by Owen, commonly styled 
Owen Glendower. It happened that a powerful The king inTade3 
and wealthy neighbour, the lord Grey of Ruthyn, Wale3 - 
appropriated to himself without ceremony a considerable portion 
of Owen's patrimony; and the injured Welshman petitioned the 
king in parliament for redress. In scornful and insulting Ian 



262 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1400 

guage a refusal was conveyed. Owen was not a man to sit down 
inactive under an affront. The natives burst suddenly into the 
English borders, and in a few days Owen appeared at their head, 
declaring himself the rightful prince of Wales. Thrice within 
two years did Henry lead a numerous force against the insur- 
gents, and thrice was he baffled by the conduct rather than the 
arms of his opponent, who, retiring among the mountains, left the 
invaders to contend with the inclemency of the season and the 
asperities of the country. By degrees Glendower assumed a bolder 
attitude. Henry collected his retainers at Shrewsbury ; divided 
them into three armies, under himself, his eldest son, and the earl 
of Arundel ; and thus invaded Wales at the same time from three 
different quarters. Still both force and policy proved unavailing. 
No enemy was to be discovered in the field ; the heavens fought 
in favor of the natives ; the valleys were deluged in rain ; the 
king's tent was torn from its fastenings, and borne away in a 
storm ; and the monarch, convinced that it was fruitless to con- 
tend with a man who could call to his aid spirits from the vasty 
deep, returned with disgrace into England. 

In the mean while, Henry had committed the charge of the 
Scottish war to the earl of Northumberland, and his son, Sir 
Henry Percy, or "Hotspur," the wardens of the western and the 
eastern marches. By them he was informed that an unknown 
Englishman had lately been received at the Scottish court, under 
the designation of Richard Plantagenet, king of England. The 
vigilance of the king was excited by this intelligence. He pub- 
lished several proclamations against the propagators of false re- 
ports. Arrests and executions followed ; and several persons, in 
different parts, suffered the barbarous punishment of treason. 

The Scotch spread the havoc of war along each bank of the 
Tyne. But the earl of Northumberland, his son Henry Percy, 

The battle of surnarned Hotspur, and the earl of March, as- 
iiomiidon. sembled an army, and on Holyrood day, 1402, 

was fought a great and decisive battle. The Scots occupied the 
hill of Homildon, near Wooler ; the English the opposite emi- 
nence. Percy ordered his archers to descend into the valley, 
from which they discharged their arrows with such force and pre- 
cision that they provoked Earl Douglas with his men-at-arms to 
advance and attempt to disperse them. The archers retired 



1402 A. D.] 



HENRY THE FOURTH. 



2QI 



slowly; and, halting at intervals, with repeated volleys arrested 
the progress of the enemy. Douglas was pierced with six wounds, 
and was taken prisoner; the foremost and bravest of his com- 
panions experienced a similar fate; and the rest, disheartened 
and in confusion, fled toward the Tweed. 

The lord Grey and Sir Edmund Mortimer were at this time 
prisoners of war in the possession of Owen Glendower. The first 
with the royal permission purchased his liberty; intri-mesofMor- 
the second, when he solicited a similar permission timer - 
from the king, met with a peremptory refusal. The reason of 
this difference could not be concealed. From the pretensions of 
Grey, Henry had nothing to apprehend; but Mortimer, as the 
uncle, and therefore the natural protector of the young earl of 
March, was an object of distrust. Henry Percy, who had married 
Mortimer's sister, repeated the request : but the king was inexora- 
ble. The friendship between the king and the Percies had long 
been on the wane. Their anxiety to effect the liberation of Morti- 
mer, gave occasion to several messages and led to one personal 
interview, with Glendower and Hotspur. Mortimer, to free him- 
self from his fetters, married the daughter of Glendower, and in- 
formed the more trusty of his retainers that he had joined the 
Welshman in his righteous quarrel, with the view of winning the 
crown for King Richard, if Richard was still alive, or, if he was 
dead, for the earl of March, the lawful heir. Hotspur hastened 
to North Wales, where he possessed considerable influence. He 
was accompanied by Douglas and his Scottish knights ; his uncle 
of Worcester, the lieutenant of South Wales, joined him with all 
the force which he could raise ; and the archers of Cheshire, a 
race of men devotedly attached to the late king, answered his 
summons, calling on them to fight with him for Richard, who was 
still alive, against Henry of Lancaster, the mortal foe of that 
monarch. The king when he heard of these proceedings marched 
to the west; directed by messengers all his faithful subjects to 
join him, and entered Shrewsbury at the moment when the in- 
surgents were first descried from the walls. Hotspur was disap- 
pointed but not discouraged ; he retired to Haytleyfield, at a 
small distance ; and though Owen with his Welshmen had not 
yet joined him, made preparations for a battle, which proved one 
of the most obstinate and bloody recorded in English history. 



264 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1405 



The two armies were nearly equal, consisting severally of about 
fourteen thousand men of approved valor. As soon as they were 

Battle between arrayed in front of each other, the king, apprehen- 
spur! y an ° sive of the result, sent the abbot of Shrewsbury to 
his opponents with proposals of peace, which, after a long hesita- 
tion, were rejected by the advice of the earl of Worcester. 
" Then, banner, advance," cried Henry. The air resounded with 
the adverse shouts of "St. George/' and " Esperance, Percy;" and 
the archers on both sides discharged their arrows with the most 
murderous effect. Percy and Douglas, who had long been rivals 
for glory, and were esteemed two of the most valorous knights in 
Christendom, rushed with thirty attendants into the centre of the 
enemy. Every thing yielded before them. The king's guards 
were dispersed; the earl of Stafford, Sir William Blount, and 
two others, who, to deceive the enemy, wore the royal arms, were 
slain ; the standard was beaten to the ground ; and the prince of 
Wales received a wound in his face. Their object had been to 
kill or secure the person of Henry; but he, by the advice of the 
Scottish earl of March, had changed his armor, and was perform- 
ing the duty of a valiant warrior in a distant part of the field. 
The two chiefs, disappointed in their expectation, determined to 
cut back their way through the enemy, who had closed behind 
them ; and they had nearly effected their purpose, when Percy 
fell by an arrow which seems to have been shot at random, and 
pierced his brain. With him fell the courage and the confidence 
of his followers, who, as soon as the loss of their leader was as- 
certained, fled in every direction. 

Another attempt against Henry was made in Yorkshire, in 
1405, at the instigation of £ord Bardolf. The insurgents, num- 

LordBardoifex- bering eight thousand men, assembled at Shipton- 
tion againsTHen- on-the-Moor, a few miles from York, and were 
ry - joined by Archbishop Scrope and the earl mar- 

shal. To disperse them, Prince John, with the earl of West- 
moreland, hastened to the forest of Galtres. The latter requested 
and obtained a conference with the opposite leaders, in the open 
space between the two armies. The archbishop and the earl were 
unexpectedly and forcibly conducted to the army of the royalists; 
and the insurgents, learning the captivity of their leaders, retired 
to their homes. Henry, at the first rumour of these commotions, 



1408 A. D.] HENRY THE FOURTH. 265 



had marched toward the north : at Pontefract, the two captives 
were presented to him. The king commanded the chief justice 
Gascoigne to pronounce on them the sentence of death ; but that 
inflexible judge refused, on the plea that the laws gave him no 
jurisdiction over the life of the prelate or of the earl marshal, 
who had a right to be tried by their peers. A more obsequious 
agent was found in a knight of the name of Fulthorpe, who by 
the king's order called them both before him, and without in- 
dictment or trial condemned them to be beheaded, which judg- 
ment was immediately carried into execution. 

From York, which he deprived of its franchises, Henry ad- 
vanced with thirty thousand men against the earl of Northumber- 
land. That nobleman, at the very outset, had The insurrection 
concluded a treaty with the regent of Scotland, lulled. 
and had solicited aid, but in vain, from the king of France and 
the duke of Orleans. As Henry advanced, he fell back on his 
Scottish allies. His castles of Prudhaw, Warkworth, and Aln- 
wick were successively reduced; and the Scots, to whom he had 
delivered the town of Berwick, set it on fire, and retired beyond 
the borders. The earl and Lord Bardolf accompanied them. 
The castle made a show of resistance ; but a shot from an enor- 
mous piece of ordnance shattered one of the towers ; the garrison 
in dismay threw open the gates ; and the son of the baron of 
Greystock, with the six principal officers, were immediately exe- 
cuted. Henry returned in triumph into the south. 

In the beginning of 1408, Northumberland and Bardolf burst 
into England, surprised several castles, raised the tenantry, who 
were still attached to their exiled lord, and aug- ThefateofNorth- 

, . , lii umberland and 

mentmg their numbers as they advanced, pene- Bardolf. 
trated as far as Knaresborough, where they were joined by Sir 
Nicholas Tempest. Sir Thomas Rokeby, having collected a body 
of tried men, prevented them from crossing the river, and follow- 
ing their footsteps, overtook them on Bramham Moor, in the 
neighborhood of Tadcaster. The contest was soon decided 
between the rabble of the insurgents and an experienced soldiery. 
The earl fell in the field; Bardolf was taken, but died of his 
wounds. 

We may now return to the history of Glendower. The whole 
of the north and a great part of the south of Wales acknowledged 
R 23 



266 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1405. 



The war against ^" s authority ; even Charles of France had received 
Gienciower. his ambassadors as those of an independent prince. 

Henry committed the conduct of the war to his eldest son, and 
the young hero gained a decisive victory over Griffith, the son of 
Glendower; and pursuing his career, reduced after a long siege 
the castle of Lampcder, in Cardiganshire. But French auxiliaries 
had now arrived, and had taken Caermarthen. Haverfordwest 
was saved by the earl of Arundel ; and the king hastened to the 
assistance of his son ; but no action of importance followed ; 
Henry, after the loss of fifty wagons conveying his treasure and 
provisions, retired; and the French, unable to subsist in a de- 
populated country, returned to their homes. At the end of four 
years, however, the southern division of "Wales entirely submitted 
to Henry. The natives of the north, disheartened by their mis- 
fortunes, insensibly withdrew themselves from the standard of 
Glcndower; and that chieftain, appalled by the steady advance 
of his enemy, ordered the greatest part of his forces to burst into 
Shropshire, and ravage the country. They were defeated, and 
their leaders suffered the punishment of treason. Owen contrived 
to spin out the contest among the wilds and mountains of Snow- 
dun till long after the accession of the next sovereign. 

We may now return to Henry's transactions with foreign 
powers. It was to him a most fortunate circumstance that 

France seeks to Charles of France continued for many years sub- 
provoke Henry to „ „ . . , , t 
hostilities. ject to fats ot insanity, and that the government 

of that kingdom was divided by the ambitious views of the dukes 
of Burgundy and of Orleans. When it was rumored that Bichard 
was still alive, and had effected his escape into Scotland, France 
received the intelligence with undissembled joy, and many a 
French knight boasted that he was ready to peril his life in the 
cause of King Bichard and the lady Isabella. They resolved, 
however, to discover the truth by sending a confidential agent to 
Scotland, and the result was a conviction that the real king had 
been murdered, and that the Bichard in Scotland was an im- 
postor. From that moment the hatred of the French people was 
directed against the supposed murderer. There was indeed no 
declaration of war, but the most powerful of the French nobles 
were encouraged to insult Henry and to plunder his subjects. 
One of them, Walleran, inflicted severe injuries on the inhabitants 



1412 A. D.] HENRY THE FOURTH. 267 

of the Isle of Wight and of the southern coast of England. Three 
princes of the house of Bourbon, embarking in the same cause, 
burnt the town of Plymouth ; and the admiral of Bretagne swept 
the narrow seas, and carried as prizes into the French ports several 
ships, with nearly two thousand prisoners. But that which sank 
still deeper into Henry's mind was a challenge which he had re- 
ceived from his former friend and sworn brother, Louis duke of 
Orleans, to fight him with one hundred knights on a side in the 
marches of Guienne. After a silence of more than four months, 
Henry replied by an ambiguous letter, which provoked a repeti- 
tion of the challenge, with reproaches of rebellion, usurpation, 
and murder. To the two first, Henry made but evasive replies. 
But the charge of murder he met with the most emphatic denial. 

Some time afterward, the duke of Orleans was murdered one 
evening in the streets of Paris by eighteen assassins in the pay 
of the duke of Burgundy; who, however, was received into favor 
by his weak and vacillating sovereign; and the princes of the 
house of Orleans, after several ineffectual petitions for justice, 
sought their revenge by force of arms. Henry viewed these com- 
motions with pleasure, for they offered him the opportunity of 
retaliation upon France. He took part with each French faction 
in turn, but without results of much importance. 

Henry had married Mary de Bohun, daughter of the earl of 
Hereford, who bore him four sons, of whom the eldest at his 
father's accession was in his twelfth year. An act was passed 
vesting the succession to the crown in his four sons and their 
heirs, in the order of seniority. Of the four princes, Henry, the 
eldest, from his proximity to the throne, chiefly attracted the 
public notice. In the battle of Shrewsbury he Prince Henry 

T j • <• /• i xi and Judge tias- 

had given proofs ot personal courage : the success coigne. 
of the war against the insurgents of Wales, which was carried on 
under his nominal command, reflected a lustre on his youth ; and 
the commons, in an adulatory address, allotted to him the praise 
of three virtues — of filial respect for the king, of bravery in the 
field of battle, and of modesty in the readiness with which on all 
occasions he submitted his own judgment to that of his council. 
His father, however, had little reason to be satisfied with his con- 
duct. He was headstrong and impetuous in the pursuit of plea- 
sure ; and when he was not actually employed in military service, 



268 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1412. 



plunged without restraint into all the vices and follies of youth. 
Probably the reader's recollection has already transported him to 
those pages in which the frolics and the associates of the prince 
have been portrayed by the inimitable pencil of Shakspeare. It 
may be, indeed, that the particular facts and personages are the 
mere creatures of the poet's imagination ; but it cannot be denied 
that they are perfectly in unison with the accounts of the more 
ancient writers, and the traditionary belief of the succeeding cen- 
tury. It should, however, be added, that in the midst of his 
excesses he occasionally displayed proofs of an ingenuous mind. 
It happened that one of his associates had been arraigned for 
felony before the chief justice Gascoigne, the same inflexible 
magistrate who had withstood the illegal commands of the king 
at York. The prince imperiously required the release of the 
prisoner; and, when that was refused, drew his sword on the 
judge. But Gascoigne coolly ordered him into confinement in 
the prison of the King's Bench ; and the young Henry had the 
good sense to submit to the punishment. When the incident was 
related to his father, " Happy," he exclaimed, " the monarch who 
possesses a judge so resolute in the discharge of his duty, and a 
son so willing to yield to the authority of the law \" 

To domestic trouble must be added the state of the king's health 
and the anxieties of his conscience. Though he was only in his 
Declining health forty-sixth year, he bore about him all the symp- 
of the king. t omg f declining age. Soon after Archbishop 

Scrope's insurrection, he became afflicted with the most loathsome 
eruptions on his face, which by the common people were con- 
sidered as a punishment for the death of that prelate ; and a suc- 
cession of epileptic fits, gradually increasing in violence, was now 
hurrying him to the grave. The prospect of his fate brought, 
we are told, to his recollection the means by which he had acquired, 
and the blood by which he had preserved the crown. He began 
at length to doubt the certainty of his favorite maxim, that the 
success of the enterprise was a proof that it had received the ap- 
probation of heaven. One day, when he was lying in a fit, and 
to all appearance was dead, the prince conveyed into another room 
the crown, which according to custom had been laid on a cushion 
by the bedside. The king returning to himself, sternly asked 
who had borne it away ; and on the report of his guards, required 



1413 A. D.] HENRY THE FOURTH. 269 

the immediate return of the prince. Pacified by his dutiful ex- 
pressions, he asked him with a sigh, " Alas ! fair son, what 
right have you to the crown, when you know your father had 
none ?" " My liege," answered the young Henry, " with the 
sword you won it, and with the sword I will keep it." After a 
pause the king faintly replied, "Well, do as you think best; I 
leave the issue to God, and hope he will have mercy on my soul." 

His last fit seized him while he was praying in St. Edward's 
chapel at Westminster. He was carried into the 
abbot's chamber, and quickly expired, on the 19th 
March, 1413, and in the fourteenth year of his reign. Of his 
three younger sons, Thomas had been created duke of Clarence, 
John and Humphrey remained without any title. His daughters 
Blanche and Philippa were married, the first to the duke of Ba- 
varia and the other to the king of Denmark. By Jane of Navarre, 
his second wife, he left no issue. 

In the preceding reigns the reader has observed the house of 
commons continually advancing with a silent but steady pace 
toward importance and authority ; under Henry it assumed a still 
higher tone, addressed the sovereign with greater freedom, and 
pushed its inquiries into every department of the administration. 
The king's pecuniary embarrassments, the defect in his title, and 
the repeated insurrections in favor of Richard and the earl of 
March, made it his interest to court the affections of the people 
through their representatives; and the men who originally were 
deemed of no other use than to grant their money, became by 
almost imperceptible degrees a coequal and coefficient part of the 
legislature. 

This reign supplies the first instance of a capital execution for 
the theological crime of heresy. Whether it were that men re- 
fused to distinguish between fact and opinion, The first instance 

j , i , , • • , i .of punishment for 

and on that account visited erroneous persuasion heresy. 
with the same punishment as criminal action, it may not be easy 
to determine; but we unfortunately find that, in almost every 
country, whatever may have been the religious belief of the 
sovereign and the legislature, the severest penalties have re- 
peatedly, and till a very late period, been enacted against dissent 
from the doctrines established by law. Sir Edward Coke, the 
great luminary of the English bar in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 

23* 



270 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1413. 

teaches that heresy is so extremely and fearfully punished, because 
it is a crime not against human but divine majesty. 

In 1401, an act was passed for the protection of the church and 
the suppression of the Lollards, which enacted that if any person 
convicted of heresy should refuse to abjure such doctrines, or 
after abjuration should be proved to have relapsed, then the 
sheriff of the county, or the mayor and bailiffs of the nearest 
borough should, on requisition, be present at the pronunciation 
of the sentence, should receive the person so condemned into 
custody, and should cause him to be burnt on a high place before 
the people, that such punishment might strike terror into the 
minds of others. William Sawtre, who had been rector of Lynn, 
suffered death under this statute soon after its enactment. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. 


Scotland. 


France. 




James I. 


Charles VI. 


John XXIII. 




Spain. 


Martin V. 


Germany. 


Henry III. 




Sigisrnund. 


John I. 



The Succession of Henr}' — Invasion of France — Battle of Azincourt — Second 
Invasion of France — Made Regent of France — His Success in France — His 
Death and Character.— A. D. 1413 to 1122. 

The late king had outlived his popularity, and the intelligence 
of his death excited little regret in any part of his dominions. 
Henry of Mon- His eldest son, Henry of Monmouth, immediately 
throned c ' (March 19, 1418) ascended the throne. As soon 

as his father expired, he withdrew to his closet, spent the rest of 
the clay in privacy and prayer, and in the evening hastened to 
his confessor, a recluse in the church of Westminster j by whom 



1414 A. D.] HENRY THE FIFTH. 271 

he was confirmed in the resolution to atone for the scandal of his 
past by the propriety of his subsequent conduct. The dissolute 
companions of his pleasures were instantly dismissed ; and men 
of knowledge and experience were invited round the throne. As 
an act of justice, he set at liberty the earl of March, who from 
his childhood had been kept in confinement by the late monarch, 
for no other crime than his right to the throne ; after some time 
he restored the son of Hotspur, an exile in Scotland, to the ho- 
nors and hereditary estates of the Percies ; and when the remains 
of the unfortunate Richard were removed by his orders from 
Langley to Westminster Abbey, he testified his respect for that 
prince by attending as chief mourner in the funeral procession. 

The Lollards were very active at this time under the guidance 
of Sir John Oldcastle, who had been a friend of Henry when 
prince of Wales, and was now denounced to the gir John i d . 
king as the supporter of false doctrine. On his castle - 
trial, his demeanor was as arrogant and insulting as that of his 
judge was mild and dignified. Not content with signifying his 
dissent from the established creed, he poured out a torrent of 
abuse against all those by whom it was upheld. He was brought 
to the bar on two different days, and persisting in his opinions, 
was pronounced an obstinate heretic. The primate, however, 
when he delivered him to the civil magistrate, procured from the 
king a respite of fifty days ; during which Oldcastle found the 
means to escape from the Tower. 

The king next directed his attention toward the French throne, 
which was still occupied by an imbecile monarch, and was daily 
undermined by the rage of contending factions. To the aspiring 
mind of Henry, these troubles opened a most alluring prospect. 
He determined to revive the claim, and tread in the Henry revives 

t> ip i -n i i ttt a ^is claim to the 

footsteps of his great-grandfather, Edward 111. A crown of France, 
little more than a year had elapsed from his accession, when he 
unexpectedly demanded the crown of France, with all its appurte- 
nances, as the heir of Isabella, daughter of Philip IV. The 
French deemed the claim an insult to the national independence. 
Henry consented that Charles should continue to possess his 
throne, but recmired, as the price of his forbearance, conditions 
which would have reduced France to a secondary station among 
the powers of Europe. They were partly granted, but the con- 



272 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1414. 



cession did not satisfy the expectations of Henry. He recalled 
his ambassadors, summoned a parliament, avowed his intention 
of vindicating his right by arms, and obtained a supply. The 
grant being large, created considerable alarm in the French court, 
and Henry resolved to make a second attempt by negotiation, 
which proved fruitless. The king now declared his resolution 
" to recover his inheritance" by arms ; and the duke of Bedford, 
one of his brothers, accepted the office of regent during the royal 
absence. Henry pawned his jewels, solicited loans, and by great 
exertions amassed the sum of five hundred thousand nobles in 
ready money. 

The French ministers now sent ambassadors to the king at 
Winchester ; the next day the archbishop of Canterbury informed 
them that his sovereign would accept nothing short of the restora- 
tion of all the territories which had ever been possessed by his 
predecessors. 

Every preparation was soon complete ; the army had assembled 
at Southampton; and the king superintended the embarkation. 
At that very moment, while his mind was occupied with visions 
of conquest and glory, he was suddenly alarmed with the intelli- 
a conspiracy g ence tna fc a conspiracy against his life had been 
against the king, formed in the bosom of his own family and house- 
hold, of which the ringleader was his cousin Richard, a brother 
to the duke of York, and lately created earl of Cambridge. Seve- 
ral of the conspirators were tried, condemned, and after a fruitless 
appeal by the earl of Cambridge to the mercy of his royal rela- 
tive, were executed. 

Henry's impatience had hastened the trial and execution of the 
conspirators. As soon as the wind would permit, he left South- 
Henry invades ainpton ; and after a rapid voyage, entered the 
France. mouth of the Seine with a fleet of fifteen hundred 

sail, carrying six thousand men-at-arms and twenty-four thousand 
archers. Three days were consumed in landing the men, stores, 
and provisions; and immediately Harfleur, a strong fortress on 
the right bank of the river, was invested by land and blockaded 
by water. The garrison repeatedly assailed the besiegers ; but in 
the fifth week they submitted to an unconditional surrender. 
Henry marched to Calais through the hostile provinces of Nor 
mancly, Picardy, and Artois. 



1415 A. D.] HENRY THE FIFTH. 273 



The progress of the English was slow, and often they were 
compelled to pass the day without food. As they crossed the 
river Bresle, they were attacked by the garrison The slow pro- 
of Eu, with loud shouts and amazing impetuosity • ush. 
but they received the assailants with coolness, and after a sharp 
contest, drove them back to the fortress. A council of the 
French was held at Rouen, in the presence of Charles, and a re- 
solution was taken to give battle to the English. Henry was at 
Monchy when three heralds were introduced to him. They de- 
livered their message on their knees, announcing that their 
countrymen were ready to meet him in the field on the Friday 
following. The king answered, with apparent indifference, that 
the will of God would be done. On the 24th October, 1415, the 
duke of York discovered several large masses of the enemy march- 
ing in the direction of Azincourt; and Henry, having recon- 
noitred them from an eminence, gave orders to form a line of 
battle. The men remained in their ranks till it was dark ; but 
as no enemy approached, they broke up in the evening, and ad- 
vanced in silence by a white road which lay before them. For- 
tunately it led to Maisoncelles, a large village, where they found 
better food and more comfortable accommodation than they had 
known for some weeks. 

The French general selected a strong position in the fields in 
front of the village of Azincourt, through which it was necessary 
for the king of England to cut his way, unless he The Tilla „ e of 
would consent to yield himself prisoner. His mar- Aziuc °urt. 
shals had allotted their stations to the different divisions of the 
army ; and each lord had planted his banner on the spot which 
he intended to occupy during the battle. The night was cold, 
dark, and rainy; but numerous fires illuminated the horizon, and 
bursts of laughter and merriment were repeatedly heard from the 
French lines. The men collected round their banners, spent 
their time in revelling and debate, discussed the probable events 
of the nest day, and fixed the ransom of the English king and 
his barons. No one suspected the possibility of defeat ; and yet 
they could not be ignorant that they lay not far from the field of 
Creci. 

To the English it was a night of hope and fear, of suspense 
and anxiety. They had been wasted with disease, broken with 



274 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1415. 

The English pro- fatigue, and weakened by the many privation? 
Tious to the battle, -which must attend the march of an army through 
a hostile country, and in the presence of a superior force. But 
they were supported by the spirit and confidence of their gallant 
leader, and by the proud recollection of the victories won in simi- 
lar circumstances by their fathers. As men, however, who had 
staked their lives on the issue of the approaching battle, they 
spent their intervening moments in making their wills, and in 
attending to the exercises of religion. The king himself took 
little repose. Pie visited the different quarters of the army, sent, 
as soon as the moon arose, officers to examine the ground, 
arranged the operations of the next day, ordered bands of 
music to play in succession during the night, and before sunrise 
summoned the men to attend at matins and mass. From prayer 
he led them into the field, and arrayed them, after his usual man- 
ner, in three divisions and two wings, but so near to each other, 
that they seemed to form but one body. The archers, on whom 
he rested his principal hope, were placed in advance of the men- 
at-arms. Their well-earned reputation in former battles, and 
their savage appearance on the present day, struck terror into 
their enemies. Many had stripped themselves naked ; the others 
had bared their arms and breasts, that they might exercise their 
limbs with more ease and execution. Besides his bow and ar- 
rows, his battle-axe or sword, each bore a large, strong stake on 
his shoulder, which he was instructed to fix obliquely before him 
on the ground, and thus oppose a rampart of pikes to the charge 
of the French cavalry. The king himself appeared on a gray 
palfrey, followed by a train of led horses ornamented with the 
most gorgeous trappings. His helmet was of polished steel, sur- 
mounted with a crown sparkling with jewels ; and on his surcoat 
were emblazoned in gold the arms of England and France. As 
he rode from banner to banner, cheering and exhorting the men, 
he chanced to hear an officer express a wish to his comrade that 
some of the good knights, who were sitting idle in England, might 
by a miracle be transported to the field of battle. " No," ex- 
claimed Henry, " I would not have a single man more. If God 
gives us the victory, it will be plain that we owe it to his good- 
ness ; if he do not, the fewer we are, the less will be the loss to 
our country. But fight with your usual courage, and God and 



1415 A. D.] HENRY THE FIFTH. 275 

the justice of our cause will protect us. Before night, the pride 
of our enemies shall be humbled in the dust; and the greater 
part of that multitude shall be stretched on the field, or captives 
in bur power." 

The French were drawn up in the same order, but with this 
fearful disparity in point of number, that while the English files 
were but four, theirs were thirty men deep. The Disposition of the 
constable himself commanded the first division, the French troops. 
dukes of Bar and Alencon the second, the earls of Marie and 
Falconberg the third. The distance between the two armies 
scarcely exceeded a quarter of a mile ; but the ground was wet 
and spongy ; and D' Albret, faithful to his plan, ordered his men 
to sit down near their banners, and await in patience the advance 
of the enemy. Their inactivity disconcerted the king, who ex- 
pected to be attacked. He improved the opportunity, however, 
to order a plentiful refreshment to be distributed through the 
ranks, while two detachments stole away unperceived by the 
French \ of which one was instructed to lie in ambush in a mea- 
dow at Tramecourt, on their left flank, and the other to alarm 
them during the battle, by setting fire to the houses in their rear. 
Just as the king had made every preparation for the attack, he 
was surprised by the approach of three French knights, who de- 
manded permission to speak with him. One of The king and ba- 
them was the baron de Helly, who had been a rondeUeiiy. 
prisoner in England, and was said to have broken his parole. 
He took the opportunity to deny the charge, and offered to meet 
in single combat between the two armies any man who should 
dare to repeat it. The king, who saw the object, instantly re- 
plied, " This is not the time for single combats. Go, tell your 
countrymen to prepare for battle before night, and doubt not that 
for the violation of your word, you will a second time forfeit your 
liberty, if not your life." " Sir," returned Helly, " I shall re- 
ceive no orders from you. Charles is our sovereign. Him we 
obey ; and for him we shall fight against you, whenever we think 
proper." "Away, then," resumed the king, "and take care 
that we are not before you." Immediately stepping forward, he 
exclaimed, " Banners, advance !" At the same moment Sir 
Thomas Erpingham threw his warder into the air ; 
and the men, falling on their knees, bit the ground, of the English. 



i 



076 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1415 



arose, shouted, and ran toward the enemy. At the distance of 
twenty paces they halted to recover breath, and then repeated the 
shout. It was echoed back by the detachment in the meadow, 
which, issuing from its concealment, instantly assailed the left 
flank of the French. At the same moment the archers, having 
planted their stakes, ran before them, discharged their arrows, 
and retired behind their rampart. The constable had appointed 
a select battalion of eight hundred men-at-arms to break this for- 
midable body. Of the whole number, not more than seven score 
ever came into action. These were quickly despatched; the 
others, unable to face the incessant shower of arrows, turned their 
visors aside, and lost the government of their horses, which, 
frantic with pain, plunged in different directions into the close 
ranks of the first division. It was a moment of irremediable con- 
fusion. Nor did the archers lose the opportunity. Slinging 
their bows behind them, and with their swords or battle-axes in 
their hands, they burst into the mass of the enemy, killed their 
constable and principal commanders, and in a short time totally 
dispersed the whole body. 

Henry, who had followed with the men-at-arms, ordered the 
archers to form again, and immediately charged the second divi- 

Tbe danger of sion. The Frenchmen, though the fate of their 
ofAieu'gon. fellows had checked their presumption, met the 

shock with courage, and maintained for two hours a most bloody 
and doubtful contest. The king's life was repeatedly in immi- 
nent danger. Seeing his brother, the duke of Clarence, wounded 
and lying on the ground, he hastily strode across his body, and 
bravely repelled the efforts of the assailants, till the prince was 
safely removed by his own servants. Soon afterward he was 
charged by a band of eighteen French knights, who had bound 
themselves to each other to kill him or take him prisoner. One 
of them with a stroke of his mace brought the king on his knees ; 
but he was instantly rescued by his guards, and his opponents 
were all slain. At length the duke of Aleneon, the French 
commander, fought his way to the royal standard. With one 
stroke he beat the duke of York to the ground ; with a second he 
clove the crown on the king's helmet. Every arm was instantly 
uplifted against him. The duke, aware of his danger, exclaimed, 
"I yield; I am Alengon." Henry held out his hand; but his 



1415 A. D.] HENRY THE FIFTH. 277 



gallant enemy had already fallen. The death of the duke was 
followed by the flight of the survivors. 

There still remained the third and most numerous division of 
the enemy. Though dismayed, it was yet unbroken; and the 
English were preparing for the charge, when the alarming intelli- 
gence arrived that a powerful force approached the rear of the 
army. In this emergency, the king hastily gave The execution of 
orders that all the prisoners should be put to death dered. 
— orders which in most instances were unfortunately executed be- 
fore the mistake could be discovered. The force which had been 
so greatly magnified, consisted only of sis hundred peasants under 
Robinet de Bournonville and Ysambert d' Azincourt; who had 
profited of the moment to enter Maisoncelles, plunder the bag- 
gage, and drive away the horses of the army. That this enter- 
prise should prove so disastrous to their countrymen they could 
not have foreseen; but they were afterward called to account, 
and severely punished by their immediate lord, the duke of Bur- 
gundy. 

During this interval the ranks of the third division began to 
waver; and their irresolution was augmented by the flames kindled 
in their rear by the English detachment. Of the ^g battle of 
whole number no more than six hundred could be Az i n court. 
persuaded to follow their leaders, the earls of Falconberg and 
Marie, who boldly rushed on the conquerors, and found, what they 
probably sought, captivity or an honorable death. The English 
were in no condition to pursue the fugitives. As soon as resist- 
ance ceased, the king with his barons traversed the field, while 
the heralds examined the arms and numbered the bodies of the 
slain. He then called to him Montjoy, the French king-at-arms, 
and asked him to whom the victory belonged. " To you, sir," re- 
plied Montjoy. "And what," continued the king, "is that castle 
which I see at a distance?" — "It is called the castle of Azin- 
court," was the answer. " Then," resumed Henry, " let this 
battle be known by the name of the battle of Azincourt." 

Henry soon proceeded to Calais, and assembled a council, in 
which it was determined to return to England, because Henry 
considered that he had demonstrated his right to Henry returns in 
the crown of France ; that God, by granting him trium P h - 
the victory at Azincourt, had given the divine sanction to his 

24 



278 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1417. 



claim ; and that the same Providence would hereafter furnish him 
with the opportunity of again seeking and ultimately recovering 
his inheritance. He sailed to Dover ; the crowd plunged into the 
waves to meet him ; and the conqueror was carried in their arms 
from his vessel to the beach. The road to London exhibited one 
triumphal procession : the lords, commons, and clergy, the mayor, 
aldermen, and citizens, conducting Henry into the capital. 

In 1416, Sigismund, emperor of Germany, visited England; 
and his mediation between that country and France was seconded 
by the presence and exhortations of William of Bavaria, duke of 
Holland and count of Hainault ; but peace did not take place. 

Henry invaded France again in 1417. He came prepared now 
to make permanent conquests ; and his army, amounting to six- 
Henry a-*ain in- teen thousand men-at-arms, and probably an equal 
vades France. number of archers, was provided with a long train 

of artillery and military engines. Fortress after fortress fell into 
the hands of the invaders. Touques, Auvillers, and Villers sur- 
rendered after short sieges ; if Caen refused to capitulate, it was 
carried by assault ; Bayeux submitted spontaneously, and obtained 
the confirmation of its privileges ; and the campaign was termi- 
nated by the successive reduction of several other towns. 

While Henry was occupied in Normandy, a feeble attempt had 
been made to deprive him of England. In consequence, it is said, 
of a secret understanding between the Scottish cabinet and the 
The Scots invade Lollards, the duke of Albany and the earl Douglas 
England. suddenly crossed the borders, and laid siege, the 

former to the castle of Berwick, the latter to that of lloxburgh. 
It proved, however, a "foul raid." They had persuaded them- 
selves that the kingdom had been left without a competent force 
for its protection ; but when they learned that the dukes of Bed- 
ford and Exeter were approaching at the head of a numerous force, 
they decamped with precipitation, and disbanded their armies. 
At the same time Sir John Oldcastle emerged from his conceal- 
ment, and arrived in the neighborhood of London. The retreat 
of the Scots defeated his projects. At St. Alban's he eluded by 
a precipitate flight the pursuit of his enemies ; but was taken in 
Wales. At the petition of the commons (the parliament was 
then sitting) he was arraigned before the peers, condemned, and 
executed. 



1418 A. D.] HENRY THE FIFTH. 279 



In the spring of 1418, Henry resumed his victorious career, 
and by a reinforcement of fifteen thousand men, was enabled to 
divide his army and undertake several operations at the same time. 
Cherbourg, after a resistance of six months, opened Henry's success 
its gates, and the whole of Lower Normandy was ia **««*• 
reduced. France was divided into two separate governments, 
more hostile to each other than to their natural enemy, the king 
of England, and equally desirous to purchase by concessions his 
assistance for their own interest. Henry listened to their propo- 
sals, but obstinately refused to accept them ; and advanced to lay 
siege to Rouen, the capital of Upper Normandy. By the French, 
a confident hope was indulged that Rouen would arrest the victo- 
rious career of the English monarch. Its fortifications were 
strong; numerous batteries covered its walls ; the Seine, winding 
round it, served to protect it from insult ; and to fifteen thousand 
citizens trained to war had been added four thousand men-at-arms. 

After a siege of four months, Rouen capitulated, and its fall was 
felt to the very extremities of France. Negotiations took place, 
but without effect. The murder of the duke of Burgundy, how- 
ever, caused fresh dissensions among the French. To the parti- 
sans of the late duke it was evident that their security depended 
on the ruin of the dauphin, and the protection of the king of 
England. Henry was not slow to name the price at which he 
would consent to be the minister of their vengeance, or rather of 
his own ambition. He required the hand of the French princess 
Catherine, the regency of the kingdom during the life of the king, 
and the succession to the crown at his death, and these conditions 
were agreed upon. According to the national custom, Henry and 
Catherine were first affianced to each other, and after a short in- 
terval the marriage was celebrated. 

Henry, accompanied by the queen, soon bent his way toward 
England. His subjects, proud of their victorious monarch, con- 
ducted him in triumph to London, where Catherine ITenry returnel 
was crowned with a magnificence hitherto unparal- t0 EngJand. 
leled in the English annals. After the ceremony, they made a 
progress through the kingdom; but at York their joy was clouded 
with the melancholy news of the battle of Beauje, where his bro- 
ther, the duke of Clarence, whom the king appointed his lieute- 
nant in Normandy, was defeated and killed. Henry hastened to 



280 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1422. 

France, and by numerous victories avenged his brother. To add 
to his good fortune, his queen was delivered of a son, who received 
in baptism the name of his father. She soon left England, in 
the company of the duke of Bedford, and hastened with her child 
to her father and mother. Henry flew to join her; and the two 
courts repaired together, May 21, 1422, to Paris, at the festival 
of Whitsuntide. 

Henry's attention was now called to the secret malady which 
he had for some time affected to despise, but which rapidly under- 
nenrv's death mined his constitution, and baffled the skill of his 
a. d. 1422. physicians. The progress of his disorder soon ex- 

tinguished every hope of recovery. He met his fate with com- 
posure, and divided the short remnant of his time between the 
concerns of his soul and those of his family. On the day of his 
death he called to his bedside the duke of Bedford, the earl of 
Warwick, and four other noblemen of distinction. To their loyalty 
he recommended his wife and her child ; and then appointed the 
earl of Warwick tutor to the prince, and the duke of Gloucester 
guardian of the kingdom. Then turning to his physicians, he re- 
quested to know how long he might expect to live; and was told, 
that the Almighty had it in his power to restore him to health. 
Dissatisfied with the evasion, he repeated his question, and re- 
quired a direct answer. "Then, sir," replied one of them, falling 
on his knee, " attend to the health of your soul, for you cannot 
live more than two hours." He heard the awful denunciation un- 
moved, sent for his confessor, and spent the remaining moments in 
exercises of devotion. While the assistants recited around his 
bed the penitential psalms, he interrupted them at the verse, 
" Thou shalt build up the walls of Jerusalem," and said in a faint 
voice, that it had always been his intention to visit Palestine, and 
free the holy city from the yoke of the Saracens. He expired in 
a few hours, on the last day of August in the year 1422. 

The splendor which conquest threw around the person of Henry 
during his life still adheres to his memory four centuries after his 
death. But he was not only a warrior, he was also a statesman. 
The praise of constitutional courage he may share with many of 
his predecessors ; he surpassed most of them in the skill with 
which he fomented the dissensions among his antagonists, and im- 
proved to the best advantage the unexpected events which check- 



1422 A. D.] HENRY THE FIFTH. 281 



ered the busy scene of French politics. Success, however, gave 
a tinge of arrogance to his character. He did not The character of 
sufficiently respect the prejudices, nor spare the Henry, 
feelings, of his new subjects ; the pomp and superiority which he 
displayed mortified their vanity ; and the deference which he ex- 
acted from the proudest of the French nobility was reluctantly 
yielded by men who, under the weak reign of Charles, had been 
accustomed to trample on the authority of their sovereign. Con- 
tinually engaged in war, he had little leisure to discharge the 
duties of a legislator ; but he has been commended for his care to 
enforce the equal administration of justice, and was beloved by 
the lower classes, both in France and England, for the protection 
which he afforded them against the oppression of their- superiors. 
To those who served him, if he were a stern, he was also a bounti- 
ful master; and though he punished severely, he rewarded with 
munificence. By military men he was beloved and adored. The 
body of the king was conveyed to Paris and Rouen, where it lay 
in state ; and from Rouen by short journeys to Calais, where a 
fleet was in waiting to transport it to England. As the procession 
approached the metropolis, it was met by the bishops, the mitred 
abbots, and the clergy ; and the obsequies were performed in pre- 
sence of the whole parliament, first in St. Paul's and then in 
Westminster Abbey. The corpse was interred near the shrine of 
Edward the Confessor ; and the tomb was long visited by the 
people with feelings of veneration and sorrow. 



24* 



282 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



[A. D. 1422. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



i*nrg t\t Sixty. 



CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. i 


German)/. 


Franci 


Martin V. 


Albert. 


Charles VI 


Eugenius IV. 


Frederic III. 


Charles VI 


Nicholas V. 


Scotland. 




Calixtus III. 


James I. 


Spain 


Pius II. 


James II. 


John II. 




James IIL 


Henry IV. 



Government during the minority — Siege of Orleans — Joan d'Arc. Charles is 
crowned at Rheinis and Henry at Paris— The King's Marriage — Loss of tho 
French Provinces — Cade's Insurrections — The Duke of York is declared heir 
to the throne — He is killed in battle — His son Edward is proclaimed king. 
—From A. D. 1422 to 1461. 

The French throne was preserved from ruin by the premature 

death of Henry V. The new king, the son of Henry and Cathe- 

Henry vi. as- rine, was hardly nine months old. On the first 

cenda the throne, . . „ . . „ . , . . 

aged nine months, advice oi his lather s decease, several peers assem- 
bled at Westminster, issued commissions in the name of Henry 
VI. to the judges, sheriffs, and other officers, and summoned a 
parliament to meet in the beginning of November. A council 
was appointed, of which the duke of Gloucester was named presi- 
dent, in the absence of his brother the duke of Bedford, not with 
the title of regent, which might be construed to import a delega- 
tion of the sovereign authority, but with that of " protector of the 
realm and church of England ;" an appellation which could serve 
only to remind him of his duty. 

The regency of France was given to the duke of Bedford by 
Charles VI. But Charles survived this transaction only a few 
days, and the dauphin assumed the insignia of royalty with the 
title of Charles VII., king of France. On the other side, the re- 
gent did not neglect the interests of his nephew. The dukes of 
Bedford and Bretasrne married each a sister of the duke of Bur- 



1428 A. D.] HENRY THE SIXTH. 283 

gundy, and then separated to raise forces in support of the common 
cause. It was not long before the flames of war were rekindled. 
The country was pillaged by both parties ; towns were taken and 
retaken ; and the fortune of the belligerents was nearly balanced 
by alternations of defeat and success. After some time the war 
was suffered to languish ; and the operations on both sides were 
confined to skirmishes and sieges, unimportant in their conse- 
quences to the two parties, but most disastrous to the unfortunate 
inhabitants. 

After some years it was determined to cross the Loire, and to 
attack Charles in the provinces which had always adhered to his 
cause. With this view, several councils were held 
at Paris; the regent yielded, it is said with re- 
gret, to the majority of voices; and a resolution was taken to 
commence with the reduction of Orleans. Montague, earl of Salis- 
bury, had lately returned from England with a reinforcement 
of six thousand men. After the earl of Warwick, he was the 
most renowned of the English commanders ; and to him by com- 
mon consent was intrusted the conduct of the siege. On the part 
of the French no preparation was omitted, no sacrifice spared, to 
preserve the city and annoy the aggressors. The English com- 
mander was killed, and the command devolved on the earl of Suf- 
folk, who received several reinforcements and successively esta- 
blished his men in different posts round the city. The fall 
of Orleans was confidently anticipated; and the most gloomy 
apprehensions prevailed in the councils of the French monarch, 
when the French throne was saved from ruin by Joan d'Arc, the 
daughter of a small farmer at Domremy, a hamlet in Champagne, 
situate between Neufchateau and Vaucouleurs. This interesting- 
female was born about the year 1412. Her education did not 
differ from that of the other poor girls in the neighborhood ; but 
she was distinguished above them all by her diligence, modesty, 
and piety. Near Domremy was a solitary chapel, called the Her- 
mitage of the Virgin. Joan was accustomed to visit this hermit- 
age every Saturday and to hang up a garland of flowers, or burn 
a taper of was in honor of the mother of Christ. These her 
early habits are worthy of notice, as they probably served to im- 
press on her mind that romantic character which it afterward 
exhibited. The child was fond of solitude ; whatever interested 



284 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1428. 



her, became the subject of long and serious thought ; and in 
these day-dreams the young enthusiast learned to invest with 
visible forms the creations of her own fancy. Besides religion, 
there was another sentiment which sprang up in the breast 
of Joan. Young as she was, she had heard enough of the calami- 
ties which oppressed her country, to bewail the hard fate of her 
sovereign, driven from the throne of his fathers. It chanced that 
in May, 1428, a marauding party of Burgundians compelled the 
inhabitants of Domremy to seek an asylum in Neufchateau. The 
village was plundered, and the church reduced to a heap of ruins. 
On their departure the fugitives returned, and the sight wound 
up the enthusiasm of Joan to the highest pitch. She escaped 
from her parents, prevailed on an uncle to accompany her, and 
announced her mission to Baudricourt, one of the French gene- 
rals, who, though he treated her with ridicule, deemed it his duty 
to communicate her history to the dauphin, and received an order 
to forward her to the French court. To travel a distance of one 
hundred and fifty leagues, through a long tract of country, of 
which one portion was possessed by hostile garrisons, and the 
other perpetually infested by parties of plunderers, was a perilous 
and almost hopeless attempt. But Joan was confident of success ; 
on horseback, and in male attire, with an escort of seven persons, 
she passed without meeting an enemy; and on the tenth day at 
Fierbois, a few miles from Chinon, announced to Charles her ar- 
joan introduced rival and object. An hour was fixed for her admis- 
to the king. s i ou { the royal presence : and the poor maiden 

of Domremy was ushered into a spacious hall, lighted up with 
fifty torches, and filled with some hundreds of knights, among 
whom Charles himself had mixed unnoticed, and in plain attire. 
Joan entered without embarrassment ; the glare of the lights, the 
gaze of the spectators did not disconcert her. Singling out the 
dauphin at the first glance, she walked up to him with a firm 
step, bent -her knee, and said, "God give you good life, gentle 
king." He was surprised, but replied, " I am not the king, he 
is there," pointing at the same time to a different part of the hall. 
" In the name of God," she exclaimed, " it is not they, but you 
are the king. Most noble lord dauphin, I am Joan the maid, 
sent on the part of God to aid you and the kingdom; and by his 
order I announce to you that you will be crowned in the city 



1429 A. D.] HENRY THE SIXTH. 285 

of Rheims." The following day she made her appearance in 
public and on horseback. From her look she was thought to be 
in her sixteenth or seventeenth year ; her figure was slender and 
graceful, and her long black locks fell in ringlets on her shoulders. 
She ran a course with the lance, and managed her horse with ease 
and dexterity. The crowd burst into shouts of admiration ; they 
saw in her something more than human; she was, they thought, 
a knight descended from heaven for the salvation of France. 
Men of every rank caught the enthusiasm ; and thousands offered 
their services to follow her to battle. 

Sixty bastiles or forts, erected in a circle round Orleans, had 
effectually intercepted the communication with the country; and 
the horrors of famine were already felt within the walls, when it 
was resolved by the French cabinet to make a desperate effort to 
throw a supply of provisions into the city. A strong body of 
men, under some of the bravest officers in France, assembled at 
Blois, and Joan solicited and obtained permission not only to 
join, but also to direct, the expedition. To the English com- 
manders, she sent orders in the name of God to ghe is admitted 
withdraw from France, and return to their native into Orleans, 
country. Dunois, the governor of Orleans, led her secretly into 
that city, where she was received by the citizens with lighted 
torches and acclamations of joy. Her presence created in the 
soldiers a spirit of daring and a confidence of success. Day after 
day sallies were made, and the strongest of the English forts suc- 
cessively fell into the hands of the assailants. One day while 
she was in the act of planting a ladder, an arrow passed through 
an opening in her corslet, and fixed itself between the chest and 
the shoulder. Her companions conveyed her out of the crowd ; 
the wound was dressed; and the heroine, after a few minutes 
spent in prayer, rejoined the combatants. At her appearance the 
assailants redoubled their efforts, and the fort was soon won. 

Suffolk, disconcerted by repeated losses, determined to raise the 
siege, and the soldiers, with feelings of shame and regret, turned 
their backs to the city. The earl of Suffolk was soon besieged in 
a neighboring town, and the place was carried by storm. More 
than three hundred of the garrison perished ; and Suffolk with 
the remainder fell into the hands of the enemy. 

Joan had always declared that the object of her mission was 



286 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1430. 



twofold, the liberation of Orleans and the coronation of the king 

at Rheims. Of these the first had been accomplished, and she 

vehemently urged the execution of the second. Though to pene- 

Charies, under trate as far as Rheims was an enterprise of diffi- 

her direction, pro- . ,, „ . -. „ 

ceeds to Rheims. culty and danger, tor every intermediate fortress 
was in the possession of the enemy, Charles determined to trust 
to his own fortune and the predictions of his inspired deliverer. 
Having sent a strong division of troops to alarm the frontiers 
of Normandy, and another to insult those of Guienne, he com- 
menced his march with an army of ten thousand cavalry. The 
citizens of Rheims, having expelled the Burgundian garrison, re- 
ceived him with the most flattering testimonies of joy. The 
coronation was performed in the usual manner; but as none 
of the peers of France attended, Charles appointed proxies to 
perform their duties. During the ceremony Joan, with her ban- 
ner unfurled, stood by the king's side; as soon as it was over, she 
threw herself on her knees, embraced his feet, declared her mis- 
sion accomplished, and with tears solicited his leave to return to 
her former station. But the king was unwilling to lose the ser- 
vices of one who had hitherto proved so useful ; and at his earn- 
est request she consented to remain with the army, and to 
strengthen that throne which she had in a great measure esta- 
blished. Bedford obtained fresh assurances of fidelity from the 
duke of Burgundy, withdrew five thousand men from his Nor- 
man garrisons, and received an equal number from his uncle 
Beaufort. With these he went in pursuit of Charles, who was 
unwilling to stake his crown on the uncertain event of a battle. 
In the neighborhood of Senlis, however, the two armies undesign- 
edly came in sight of each other. The English, inferior in num- 
ber, prepared for the fight after their usual manner; the French 
officers, flushed with success, impatiently demanded the signal for 
battle. But the defeats of Azincourt and Verneuil had taught 
Charles not to rely on mere superiority of number. The armies 
separated as if it had been by mutual consent. The regent hast- 
ened into Normandy, and Charles, at the solicitation of his female 
champion, took advantage of the duke's absence to make an 
attempt on the capital. Soissons, Senlis, Beauvais, and St. Denis 
opened their gates. He advanced to Montmartre, published an 
amnesty, and directed an assault on the fauxbourg of St. Honore. 



1431 A. D.] HENRY THE SIXTH. 287 



The action lasted four hours. At its very commencement Joan 
received a dangerous wound, was thrown into the ditch and lay 
there unnoticed, till she was discovered in the evening, and car- 
ried off by a party sent to search after her. Charles, mortified 
by the obstinate resistance of the Parisians, retired to Bourges ; 
while the maid, looking on her wound as an admonition from 
heaven that her commission had ceased with the coronation at 
Rheims, consecrated her armor to God in the church of St. Denis. 
Her services, however, were still wanted. At the solicitation 
of her sovereign, she consented to resume the profession of arms, 
and accepted a patent of nobility for herself and her family, ac- 
companied with a grant of income equal to that of an earl. 

At the commencement of spring, the duke of Burgundy un- 
dertook to reduce the city of Compeigne ; and the maid was 
selected to raise the siege. Her troops were defeated, however ; 
she was taken prisoner, and was handed over to the regent, 
Bedford. 

The unfortunate maid was treated with neglect by her friends, 
with cruelty by her enemies. If ever prince had been indebted 
to a subject, Charles VII. was indebted to Joan The death of 

,,. ,„ ,. ~, .., Joan d'Arc, May 

d Arc ; yet from the moment or ner captivity she 30, 1431. 
appears to have been forgotten. We read not of any sum offered 
for her ransom, or attempt made to alleviate the rigor of her con- 
finement, or notice taken of her trial and execution. The bishop 
of Beauvais, in whose diocese she had been taken, claimed the 
right of trying her in his court on an accusation of sorcery and 
imposture. It is generally supposed that this claim was made at 
the suggestion of the duke of Bedford. The inquiry was opened 
at Rouen ; on sixteen different days she was brought to the bar ; 
the questions, with her answers, were laid before the university 
of Paris; and the opinion of that body concurred with the judg- 
ment of the court. Still the sentence was delayed from day to 
day; and repeated attempts were made to save her from the pu- 
nishment of death, by inducing her to make a frank and explicit 
confession. But the spirit of the heroine continued undaunted; 
she proudly maintained that she had been the inspired minister 
of the Almighty. The fatal day, however, arrived, and the cap- 
tive was placed at the bar; but when the judge had prepared to 
pronounce sentence, she yielded to a sudden impulse of terror, 



288 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1435. 



subscribed an act of abjuration, and, having promised upon 
oath never more to wear male attire, was remanded to ber former 
place of confinement. Her enthusiasm, however, revived in the 
solitude of a prison, and her judges condemned her, on the 
charge of having relapsed into her former errors. She was led 
sobbing and struggling to the stake; but the expectation of a 
heavenly deliverer did not forsake her though she saw the fire 
kindled at her feet. She then burst into loud exclamations, pro- 
testing her innocence, and invoking the aid of the Almighty ; and 
just before the flames enveloped her, was seen embracing a cruci- 
fix, and calling on Christ for mercy. This cruel and unjustifiable 
tragedy was acted in the market-place of Rouen, before an im- 
mense concourse of spectators, about twelve months after her 
capture. 

No sooner had Charles been crowned at Rheims, than the duke 

of Bedford determined that his nephew Henry VI. should be also 

Henry vi. crown- crowned at the same place. The voung king, as a 

ed in Paris, Dec. . . 

17, 1430. preparatory step, received the regal unction at 

Westminster in his eighth year; but six months elapsed before 
he was enabled to leave England. At length, the sums necessary 
for his journey were raised by loan ; the cardinal of Winchester 
consented to accompany him ; and the duke of Gloucester was 
appointed the king's lieutenant during his absence. Henry pro- 
ceeded to Rouen; but the prospect of penetrating to Rheims 
grew fainter every day; and at the end of eighteen months [17th 
of December, 1430] the coronation took place in Paris. After a 
few days Henry was re-conducted to Rouen, where he resided a 
year, and then returned by Calais to England. 

The war languished during the two following years, and then 
an attempt was made to cause a general pacification, under the 
The Confess at mediation of the pope, as the common father of 
Arras - Christian princes. To this proposal Eugenius IV. 

gladly acceded; and in 1435 was held the Congress of Arras, the 
most illustrious meeting for political purposes which Europe had 
yet witnessed ; but the pretensions of the two courts were so op- 
posite and extravagant, that every hope of pacification speedily 
vanished. 

Before the dissolution of the Congress of Arras, the duke of 
Bedford expired at Rouen, and was succeeded by Richard, duke 



1449 A. D.] HENRY THE SIXTH. 289 



of York. The duke of York was succeeded by Beauchauip, sur- 
named the Good, earl of Warwick, with the title of lieutenant- 
general and governor of France. 

The pope repeatedly exhorted the rival powers to lay aside 
their arms, but was thwarted by the obstinacy of the French 
cabinet. 

During Henry's minority, little occurred deserving of being re- 
corded. He was free from vice, but devoid of capacity. Gentle 
and inoffensive, he was shocked at the very shadow The marria<re of 
of injustice; but, easy and unassuming, was Henry, 
always ready to adopt the opinion of his advisers. When he 
was twenty -three years old, his council suggested that it was time 
he should marry; and every one foresaw that the queen, whoever 
she might be, would possess the control over the weak mind 
of her husband. The choice of Henry was directed toward 
Margaret, the daughter of Rene, king of Sicily and duke of 
Anjou. In personal beauty she was thought superior to most 
women, in mental capacity equal to most men of the age. The 
marriage was agreed on. Margaret landed at Porchester, was 
married to Henry at Tichfield, and crowned, May 30, 1444, with 
the usual ceremony, at Westminster. 

The deaths of the duke of Gloucester and cardinal Beaufort 
removed the two firmest supports of the house of Lancaster, and 
awakened the ambition of Richard, duke of York, Kiciaara duke of 
who, by the paternal line, was sprung from Ed- York - 
ward Langley, the youngest son of Edward III., and by the 
maternal had become, after the death of the earl of March in 
1424, the representative of Lionel, the third son of the same 
monarch. He had been appointed regent of France during five 
years ; but the duke of Somerset, who sought to succeed to the 
influence of his relatives, the late cardinal and the duke of Glou- 
cester, expressed a wish to possess that command ; and York was 
reluctantly induced to exchange it for the government of Ireland. 
The affront sank deep into his breast; he began to consider 
Somerset as a rival ; and, to prepare himself for the approaching 
contest, sought to win by affability and munificence the affections 
of the Irish. 

If Henry felicitated himself on the acquisition of an accom- 
plished and beautiful wife, his dreams of happiness were disturbed 

25 



290 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1449. 

The French king by the murmurs of the people. It was said that 

recovers his posses- . . . • i -»r i i i 

sions. his union with Margaret had been purchased at 

too great a price in the cession of Anjou and Maine. Obstacles 
were opposed to the cession of Maine by the persons holding 
grants of land in that country; and the French king, weary of 
the tergiversation of the English government, resolved to cut the 
knot with the sword, and invested the capital of the province 
with an army. Henry, who was in no condition for war, sur- 
rendered almost the whole province, and obtained in return a 
truce for two years. 

Maine was soon filled with French troops ; and the king and 
duke of Bretagne resolved to unite their forces, and sweep the 
English from the soil of France. Within two months one- 
half of Normandy was in their possession. They soon also 
obtained the city of Rouen ; and within the space of a year and 
six days, Normandy, with its seven bishoprics and one hundred 
fortresses, was entirely recovered by the French monarch. 

Charles, however, was not satisfied without the conquest of 
Guienne ; and soon the French banner waved in triumph from 
the mouth of the Garonne to the very borders of Spain. When 
nothing but Calais remained to England, Charles offered to treat 
of peace. The proposal was rejected with an idle threat, that 
Henry would never sheath his sword till he should have recon- 
quered all that had been lost. 

Every tongue was employed in bewailing the fallen glory of 
England, and every place resounded with cries of vengeance on 
The arrest of the bead of the minister, Suffolk. His enemies in 
Suffolk : his fall. ^} ae ] ower house had formed themselves into a 
powerful party, who requested that he might be immediately com- 
mitted to the Tower. But the lords, having consulted the judges, 
replied that they had no power to order any peer into confinement 
unless some specific charge were brought against him. Two days 
later the speaker returned, and accused him of having aided the 
king of France, who, he pretended, was then making preparations 
to invade the country. On this charge, he was arrested and con- 
fined in the Tower. 

On the day appointed for his trial he was introduced into the 
house of lords, and falling on his knees before the king, solemnly 
declared his innocence. But whatever mishit be his jruilt or inno- 



1449 A. D.] HENRY THE SIXTH. 291 



cence, it was evident that his enemies thirsted for his blood ; nor 
would the commons grant any supply till their cry for vengeance 
had been appeased. It became therefore the policy of the court 
to devise the means of satisfying them without endangering his 
life; and he was sentenced to banishment for five years. He 
sailed from Ipswich with two small vessels, and sent a pinnace 
before him to inquire whether he might be permitted to land in 
the harbor of Calais. But the pinnace was captured by a squad- 
ron of men-of-war ; and one of the largest ships in the navy bore 
down on the duke's vessels. He was ordered on board, and 
received on deck by the captain with the ominous salutation of 
" Welcome, traitor." On the second morning, a small boat came 
alongside, in which were a block, a rusty sword, and an execu- 
tioner ; the duke was lowered into it, and beheaded. 

The news of this tragical event plunged the king and queen 
into the deepest distress; and the people of Kent were roused by 
rumors of the signal vengeance which Henry had i nsurre ction of 
determined to inflict on them for having furnished John Cac,e - 
the ships which intercepted his friend. An Irish adventurer, 
whose real name was John Cade, but who had assumed that of 
Mortimer, cousin to the duke of York, seized the moment to un- 
furl the standard of insurrection. At the head of twenty thou- 
sand men he marched to Blackheath. Henry instantly dissolved 
the parliament, and summoning his forces, advanced to London. 
Cade demanded that the relatives of the duke of Suffolk should 
be banished from the court, and the clukcs of York, Exeter, 
Buckingham, and Norfolk, with the earls and barons, be employed 
about the king's person. 

Henry had levied between fifteen and twenty thousand men, 
with whom he marched to suppress the insurgents; but Cade 
withdrew before the king's arrival, and was pursued. At Seven- 
oaks he turned on his pursuers. Henry disbanded his forces, and 
retired to the castle of Kenilworth, while Cade took possession of 
London. He was, however, soon afterward taken and beheaded. 
The chief of his followers were executed; of whom some con- 
fessed on the scaffold that it had been their intention to place the 
duke of York on the throne. 

This nobleman, leaving his government of Ireland without per- 
mission, landed in England, and hastened toward London with 



292 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1449. 



Somerset returns f° ur thousand men. He was introduced to Henry, 
from France. behaved with insolence in his presence, and ex- 

torted a promise that he would summon a parliament. The duke 
of Somerset now returned from France. The king and queen 
hailed his arrival as a blessing. He was the nearest of kin to 
Henry, and it was hoped that his fidelity and services would 
prove a counterpoise to the ambition of Richard. 

For several months the nation was agitated by quarrels between 
the adherents of the two parties, by acts of violence and blood- 
shed, and by fruitless attempts to effect a reconciliation. The 
king, at the head of an army, soon marched against the duke of 
York; but he, avoiding the direction of the royalists, advanced 
to London by a different road, and finding the gates shut against 
him, proceeded as far as Hartford. Henry followed him, to de- 
mand an explanation of his conduct. The duke asserted that he 
was come to vindicate his innocence. To satisfy him, Henry 
ordered the duke of Somerset into custody; on which York dis- 
banded his army, and swore fealty to the king. 

At this time the inhabitants of Guienne offered to renew their 
allegiance, and solicited the aid of an English army. This was 
granted, and the command given to the earl of Shrewsbury. 
The expedition, however, did not succeed, and from that period 
Guienne was incorporated with the dominions of the French 
monarch. 

In 1453, the queen was delivered of a son, whom she called 
Edward. It was in vain that the king's enemies attempted to 
throw doubts on the legitimacy of the young prince; and the 
prospect of an undisputed succession was hailed with joy by the 
friends of tranquillity. 

Henry about this time sank into a state of mental, as well as 
bodily incapacity. His situation rendered it necessary to pro- 
The conduct of ro g ue the parliament, and recalled the duke of 
the duke of York. York into the cabinet. He soon gained the as- 
cendency over his rival, and Somerset was committed to the 
Tower. A committee of peers was chosen to visit the king; and 
as soon as they had reported that he was incapable of transacting 
business, an act was passed appointing the duke protector. The 
king soon recovered his health, and with it the use of his reason. 
Though he received the duke of York with his usual kindness, 



1454 A. D.] HENRY THE SIXTH. 293 

he put an end to the protectorate, liberated the duke of Somer- 
set from the Tower, and labored most earnestly to reconcile the 
two dukes. 

York retired from court, invited his friends to meet him in the 
marches of Wales, and soon saw himself at the head of three 
thousand men, with the duke of Norfolk, the earl of Salisbury, 
and his son, the celebrated earl of Warwick. At the news Henry 
left London, and early the next morning, as he entered St. Alban's, 
was surprised to behold the banners of the Yorkists advancing 
toward the town. A battle ensued, and the king The king ^ tak . 
was defeated and taken prisoner. Henry, now at en prisoner. 
the mercy of his enemies, was compelled to lend the sanction of 
his authority to the very acts by which he had been deprived of 
his liberty. When the parliament assembled, York and his adhe- 
rents said that all their proceedings had been actuated by senti- 
ments of the purest loyalty, and they received a full pardon. 

Henry soon relapsed into his former disorder, and the duke of 
York was again named protector. But Henry soon recovered, 
and the protector's commission was revoked. Two years passed 
without any important occurrence, during which Henry labored 
to mitigate the resentments of the two parties. Discord, however, 
again broke out. York and his followers rebelled. Henry granted 
an amnesty to the insurgents, and convoked a parliament. Its 
principal employment was to pass an act of attainder against the 
duke and duchess of York, and their children the earls of March 
and Rutland. 

The hopes and fortunes of the Yorkists now rested on the 
abilities and popularity of the earl of Warwick, who had been 
permitted to retain the command of the fleet with Rebellion headed 

,, . a. , . n by the earl of War- 

tne government of Calais. He was now super- wick, 
seded in both ; in the former by the duke of Exeter, in the latter 
by the duke of Somerset. But when Somerset prepared to enter 
the harbor, he was driven back, and Warwick sailed to Dublin, 
to concert measures with the duke of York. He soon, with nu- 
merous forces, landed in Kent, where he was joined by the lord 
Cobham with four hundred followers, by the archbishop of Can- 
terbury, who owed his dignity to the favor of the duke during 
the protectorate, and by most of the neighboring gentlemen. A3 

he advanced, his army swelled to the amount of twenty-five, some 

25* 



294 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1454. 



say, forty thousand men. London opened its gates. Henry had 
collected his army at Coventry, and advanced to Northampton, 
where he intrenched himself. Warwick, after three ineffectual 
attempts to obtain a conference with the king, gave to him notice 
to prepare for battle. A battle was fought, and Henry was taken 
prisoner. The captive monarch was conducted to London. But 
though he entered the capital in great pomp, the earl of Warwick 
riding bareheaded and carrying the sword before him, he was com- 
pelled to give the sanction of his authority to such measures as 
the victors proposed. 

The duke of York, by his counsel, delivered to the bishop of 
Exeter, the new chancellor, a statement of his claim to the 
crown, and requested that he might have a speedy answer. The 
lords resolved in favor of the duke of York ; but they refused to 
proceed to the step of dethroning the king. To save their oaths 

The queen as- ail( l clear their consciences, they proposed a com- 
h^sapport orSe P rom i se — tnat Henry should possess the crown for 
king, a.d.1455. the t erm f hj s natural life, and that the duke and 
his heirs should succeed to it after Henry's death. To this both 
parties agreed. But though the monarch had consented to sur- 
render the interests of his son, they were still upheld by the 
queen. The lords who had always adhered to the house of Lan- 
caster, assembled an army at York, and the duke of Somerset 
and the earl of Devon joined them with their tenants from those 
counties. This union alarmed the other party. York met the 
enemy with inferior forces near Wakefield, and was either killed 
in the battle, or taken and beheaded on the spot. The queen 
with her victorious army advanced on the road to London, and 
met with no opposition till she had reached the town of St. Al- 
ban's. Here, by an important victory, Henry was restored to his 
friends, and placed at the head of an army. He announced by 
proclamation that his assent to the late award had been extorted 
by violence, and issued orders for the immediate arrest of Edward, 
late earl of March, and son to the late duke of York. But Edward 
had now united his forces with those of the earl of Warwick ; and 
their superiority in numbers induced the royalists to retire with 
expedition into the northern counties. They were not pursued. 
Edward had a more important object in view, and entered London 
with all the pomp of a victorious monarch. He was immediately 



1461 A.D.] 



EDWARD THE FOURTH. 



295 



proclaimed king in the usual style by the heralds, in different 
parts of the city. 

On the 4th of March, 1461, expired the reign of Henry VI. 
He was a prince whose personal character commanded the respect 
even of his enemies, and whose misfortunes still Henry ends bis 

i « i tt • reidn, March 4, 

claim the sympathy of the reader. He was vir- 1461. 
tuous and religious, humane, forgiving, and benevolent; but 
nature had refused him that health of body and fortitude of mind 
which would have enabled him to struggle through the peculiar 
difficulties of his situation 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



tiftttomft tfj* j0ttitlr. 



CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. 


Scotla?id. 


France. 




James III. 


Charles VII. 


Pius II. 




Louis XI. 


Paul II. 


Germany. 


Sjyain. 


Sixtus IV. 


Frederic II. 


Henry IV. 
Isabella ) 
Ferdinand j 







Misfortunes of the Lancastrians — Henry VI. is made prisoner — Insurrection — 
Edward is made prisoner — His release — Clarence and Warwick leave the 
kingdom, and return — Edward is expelled, and Henry restored — Edward re- 
turns — His victory at Barnet — Death of Henry — War with Franco — Death 
of the King.— A. D. 1461 to 1483. 

Though Edward had assumed the title of king, the two parties 
were still nearly balanced. The earl of Warwick, anxious to 
bring the question to an issue, marched from London at the 
head of a body of veterans : Edward in a few days followed with 
the main army. The preparations of the house of Lancaster were 
equally formidable. The duke of Somerset, with sixty thousand 
men, lay near York. Between the villages of Tow- m , , „, 

' J ° The battle of 

ton and Saxton was fought (March 29, 1461) the Tow ton. 



296 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1461. 



battle which fixed the crown on the brow of Edward. The dukes 
of Somerset and Exeter conducted Henry and his family to the 
borders, while the conqueror rode toward York, which he entered 
the next morning. He soon hastened to London, was crowned 
at Westminster with the usual solemnity, and created his two 
younger brothers, George and Richard, dukes of Clarence and 
Gloucester. Henry VI., his queen, their son Edward, and seve- 
ral others, were adjudged by parliament to suffer all the penalties 
of treason. 

The cause of the red rose, the Lancastrian emblem, now ap- 
peared desperate ; but it was still supported by the courage and 
industry of Margaret. To aid her cause, Margaret visited the 
continent, and invited all true knights to avenge the wrongs of 
the injured Henry. After an absence of five months she re- 
turned, and her hopes were cheered with a temporary gleam of 
success ; but Edward and Warwick advancing with large forces, 
overcame her troops. 

The spirit and activity of Margaret exposed her to numerous 
privations and dangers. On one occasion it is said that, as she 
The misfortunes was riding secretly with her son and the seneschal 
the queen. through a wild and mountainous district, they were 

surprised by a party of banditti, who despoiled them of their 
money, jewels, and every other article of value. It is probable 
that the queen concealed her quality, or such distinguished cap- 
tives would have been more carefully guarded. The ruffians 
quarrelled about the partition of the booty; menaces were ut- 
tered, and swords drawn, when Margaret, watching her opportu- 
nity, grasped her son by the arm, and plunged into the thickest 
part of the wood. She had not proceeded far when another rob- 
ber made his appearance. The queen, with the intrepidity of de- 
spair, advanced to meet him ; and taking the young Edward by 
the hand, " Friend," said she, " I intrust to your loyalty the son 
of your king." This address awakened his generosity. He took 
them both under his protection, and conducted them to the quar- 
ters of the Lancastrians. Henry for security had been conveyed 
to the castle of Hardlough, in Wales. The queen sailed to Sluys, 
in Flanders, and thence proceeded to Bar, in Lorrain, belonging 
to her father. There she fixed her residence, watching with 
anxiety the course of events, and consoling her sorrows with the 



14G9A.D.] EDWARD THE FOURTH. 297 

hope of yet placing her husband or her son on the English 
throne. 

Henry sought an asylum among the natives of Lancashire and 
Westmoreland — a people sincerely devoted to his interests. 
Their fidelity enabled him for more than a year to elude the vigi- 
lance of the government ; but he was at last be- Henry betrayed 

n and taken pri- 

trayed by a monk of Abingdon. The unfortunate soner. 
king was met near London by the earl of Warwick, who ordered 
by proclamation that no one should show him any respect, tied 
his feet to the stirrups as a prisoner, led him thrice round the 
pillory, and conducted him to the Tower. Edward now turned 
his thoughts to his relations with foreign states. To the pope he 
had already notified his accession, and sent an abstract of the ar- 
guments on which he founded his claim. The answer of Pius 
II. was civil, but guarded. With Scotland, which had so long 
offered an asylum to his enemies, Edward concluded a peace for 
fifteen, and afterward prolonged it for fifty-five years ; and he was 
on terms of amity with almost all the powers of Europe. 

In these circumstances, the king no longer hesitated to acknow- 
ledge in public a marriage which he had some time before con- 
tracted in private with Elizabeth — a woman of superior beauty 
and accomplishments, the relict of Sir John Gray, a Lancastrian. 
For this purpose he summoned a general council of peers, by 
whom she was acknowledged as queen. 

George, the elder of the surviving brothers of Edward, had re- 
ceived with the title of duke of Clarence a proportionate income, 
and had been named to the lieutenancy of Ireland, which office, 
on account of his age, he was permitted to execute by his deputy, 
the earl of Worcester. This young prince, dissatisfied at the 
ascendency of the queen's relations, absented himself frequently 
from court, and preferred to the company of his brother that of 
the earl of Warwick, whose daughter he married. 

An insurrection burst forth in 1469. Its ostensible cause was 
the determination of the farmers of Yorkshire to resist some un- 
popular demand. The peasants flew to arms ; but i ngurre ction in 
the earl of Northumberland, Warwick's brother, Yorkshire, 
to prevent the destruction of York, attacked and defeated them 
with considerable slaughter. The rebels, though repulsed, were 



298 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1469. 

not dispersed ; and in a few clays were said to amount to sixty 
thousand men. 

On the first intelligence of the rising in Yorkshire, Edward 
had summoned his retainers. He advanced to Newark; but, 
alarmed at the disaffection which he observed on his march, he 
despatched letters, written with his own hand, to his brother 
Clarence, the earl of Warwick, and the archbishop, requesting 
them to hasten to him at Nottingham, with the same retinue 
which usually attended them in time of peace. They, however, 
hastened to increase their forces. A defeat at Edgecoat extin- 
guished the hopes of Edward. The earl Rivers, the queen's 
father, was discovered, with his son, Sir John Wydeville, in the 
forest of Deane, and they were put to death. The king's brother 
and the two Nevilles proceeded in search of Edward, whom they 
found at Olney, plunged in the deepest distress. He soon dis- 
covered that he was their captive. The few royalists who had 
remained with the king, dispersed with the permission of War- 
wick. At his command, the insurgents returned to their homes 
laden with plunder; and Edward accompanied the two brothers 
to Warwick ; whence, for greater security, he was removed to 
Middlcham in Yorkshire. 

England exhibited at this moment the extraordinary spectacle 
of two rival kings, each confined in prison, Henry in the Tower, 

The two royal Edward in Yorkshire. The Lancastrians seized 
prisoners. the opportunity to unfurl the standard of Henry. 

Edward was released, and repaired to the capital, where his re- 
turn was hailed by his own friends as little short of a miracle. 
A council of peers was now summoned, in which, after many 
negotiations, Clarence and his father-in-law condescended to jus- 
tify their conduct. Edward, with apparent cheerfulness, accepted 
their apology, and a general pardon was issued in favor of all 
persons who had borne arms against the king. Yet under this 
outward appearance of harmony, distrust and resentment fes- 
tered in their breasts; and a singular occurrence proved how 
little faith was to be given to the protestations uttered on either 
side. The archbishop had invited the king to meet Clarence and 
Warwick at an entertainment, which he designed to give at his 
seat at the Moor, in Hertfordshire. As Edward was washing his 
hands before supper, John Ratcliffe, afterward Lord Fitzwalter, 



1470 A. D.] EDWARD THE FOURTH. 299 

whispered in his ear that one hundred armed men were lying in 
wait to surprise and convey him to prison. Without inquiring 
into the grounds of the information, he stole to the door, mounted 
a horse, and rode with precipitation to Windsor. 

An insurrection soon burst out in Lincolnshire, of which the 
king could at first discover neither the real object nor the authors. 
The king attacked the insurgents at Erpingham, i nsurre ction in 
in Rutlandshire : his artillery mowed clown their Lincolnshire, 
ranks, and their leaders were taken and executed. Their con- 
fessions show that the insurrection had been got up at the insti- 
gation of Clarence and Warwick — that a confidential emissary 
from the duke regulated the movements of the force, and that the 
avowed object was to raise Clarence to the throne. 

Warwick and Clarence fled from England, steered their course 
toward Normandy, captured every Flemish merchantman which 
fell in their way, and were received at Harfleur . Queen Margaret 
with distinguished honors by the admiral of Warwick. 
France. Louis XL invited them to his court, where they met 
Henry's queen, Margaret of Anjou. After a struggle, Margaret 
suffered her antipathy to Warwick to be subdued. The earl ac- 
knowledged Henry for his rightful sovereign, and bound himself 
to aid her, to the best of his power, in her efforts to restore her 
husband to the throne. To cement their friendship, it was agreed 
that the prince, her son, should marry his daughter Anne ; and, 
to lull the probable discontent of Clarence, that in failure of issue 
by such marriage, the right to the crown should, on the death of 
the prince, devolve on the duke. 

Soon afterward, the exiles, under the protection of a French 
fleet, landed without opposition at Plymouth and Dartmouth. 
Edward had been drawn as far as York by an arti- Tho exiles land 
fice of the lord Fitzhugh, brother-in-law to War- at Plymouth, 
wick, who pretended to raise a rebellion in Northumberland, and 
on the approach of the king, retired within the borders of Scot- 
land. Thus the southern counties were left open to the invaders. 
Warwick proclaimed Henry VI., ordered all men between sixteen 
and sixty to join his standard, and marched with an army which 
increased every hour, in a direct line toward Nottingham. The 
thoughtless king had affected to treat the invasion with his usual 



300 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1471. 



levity, but soon being convinced that his cause was lost, be fled 
to Holland. 

Queen Elizabeth with her family had remained in the Tower ; 
but perceiving that the tide of loyalty had turned in favor of 
Henry, she left that fortress secretly, and fled with her mother 
and three daughters to the sanctuary of Westminster, where she 
was shortly afterward delivered of a son. 

Within a few days, Clarence and Warwick made their triumphal 
entry into the capital. Henry was immediately conducted from 

Henry released tue Tower to the bishop's palace ; and thence 
from the Tower. talked in solemn procession, with the crown on 
his head, to the cathedral of St. Paul's. By a parliament sum- 
moned in the name of the restored king, Edward was pronounced 
an usurper, his adherents were attainted, and the crown was en- 
tailed on the issue male of Henry VI., and in default of such 
issue, on the duke of Clarence and his heirs. 

Edward solicited assistance from the duke of Burgundy, who 
feared to aid him publicly ; but in secret he made him a present 
of fifty thousand florins, ordered four large ships to be equipped 
for his use at Vere, in Holland, and hired fourteen vessels from 
the Hanse Towns, to transport him to England. 

Edward with ten or fifteen hundred men disembarked (March 
14, 1471) at Ravenspur, in Yorkshire, the very place where 

Edward lands in Henry IV. landed to dethrone Richard II. Ed- 
Engiand. ward directed his march with expedition to the 

capital, which had been intrusted to the care of the archbishop. 
That prelate already began to waver. In the morning he con- 
ducted Henry, decorated with the insignia of royalty, through the 
streets of the city ; in the afternoon he ordered the recorder to 
admit Edward by a postern in the walls, alleging that the party 
of the house of York had gained the ascendency among the 
citizens j that the richest of the merchants were the creditors of 
Edward ; that his affability and gallantries had attached numbers 
to his interests ; and that the sanctuaries contained two thousand 
of his adherents, ready at a signal to unsheath the sword in his 
favor. However that may be, the archbishop secured a pardon 
for himself. Warwick followed Edward, expecting to find him 
encamped before the capital ; but he, apprehensive of the Lan- 



1471 A.D.] EDWARD THE FOURTH. 301 

castrians 'within its walls, immediately left it, and taking Henry 
with him, advanced to meet the enemy. 

It was late on Easter-eve when the hostile armies met, a little 
to the north of the town of Barnet. Warwick had already 
chosen his ground ; Edward made his preparations The battle of 
during the darkness of the night ; in consequence Barnet - 
of which, he posted by mistake his right wing in front of the 
enemy's centre, while his left stretched far away to the west. 
But at daybreak a fog of unusual density concealed from both 
parties their relative position ; and at five o'clock the king gave 
by trumpet the signal for battle. It lasted four or five hours. 
At length the welcome intelligence was brought to Edward, that 
the body of Warwick had been found, lying near a thicket, 
breathless and despoiled of armor. This terminated the im- 
portant battle of Barnet. To Edward the death of Warwick was 
of greater importance than any victory. That nobleman, by a 
long course of success, had acquired the surname of the King- 
maker ; and the superstition of the vulgar believed that the cause 
which he supported must finally succeed. 

Edward entered the city in triumph, remanded the unfortunate 
Henry to his cell in the Tower, and resumed the exercise of the 
sovereign authority. But he was not long permitted to indulge 
in repose or festivity. He had fought at Barnet on the Sunday ; 
on the Friday he was again summoned into the field, as Queen 
Margaret had landed with a body of French auxiliaries at Wey- 
mouth. On hearing of the defeat at Barnet, she sank to the 
ground in despair; and as soon as she came to herself, hastened 
with her son for safety to the abbey of Cerne. But the Lancas- 
trian lords raised a considerable body of troops to fight under her 
banner, and a battle took place (May 4, 1471) at The Kittle of 
Tewksbury. The victory was won by Edward. ^S' of "the 
Of the prisoners, the most important was the Lan- i ueen ' s forces - 
casfrian prince of Wales, who was taken to Edward in the field. 
To the question, what had brought him to England, he boldly and 
ingenuously replied, " To preserve my father's crown, and my 
own inheritance." The king, it is said, had the barbarity to 
strike the young prince in the face with his gauntlet ; Clarence 
and Gloucester, perhaps the knights in their retinue, despatched 
him with their swords. Queen Margaret, with her daughter-in- 

26 



302 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1477, 



law, and the ladies her attendants, had withdrawn, before the 
battle, to a small religious house in the neighborhood. The}' 
were afterward discovered, and presented as prisoners to the 
king. 

A week after the battle of Tewksbury, the conqueror made 
his triumphal entry into the capital ; on the next day the dead 

The death of body of Henry was exposed in St. Paul's. To 
Henry, satisfy the credulous, it was reported, as had been 

formerly reported of Richard II., that he died of grief; but his 
death is attributed to the advice, if not to the dagger, of the 
youngest of the royal brothers, Richard, duke of Gloucester. 
Margaret was confined first in the Tower, afterward at Windsor, 
and lastly at Wallingford. After a captivity of five years, she 
was ransomed by Louis of France, and closed her eventful life, in 
1482, in her own country. 

Thus, after many a bloody field, and the most surprising vicis- 
situdes of fortune, was the head of the house of York seated on 
the throne of England, apparently without a competitor. His 
eldest son, who had been born in the sanctuary during his exile, 
and had also been named Edward, was now created prince of 
Wales and earl of Chester, and was recognised as the heir-appa- 
rent. Edward's chief disquietude arose from the insatiate rapa- 
city of his brothers, the dukes of Clarence and Gloucester. Cla- 
rence, who had married Warwick's eldest daughter, grasped at 
the succession to all that earl's property ; Gloucester, who mar- 
ried the younger, the relict of the prince of Wales, slain at 
Tewksbury, claimed for himself a proportionate share. After 
some time, an arrangement took place ; but a secret hatred had 
been kindled in their breasts, which was ready to burst forth on 
the first and most trivial provocation. 

Being at length relieved from all cause of disquietude at home, 
Edward resolved to prosecute the ancient claim of the English 
monarchs to the French crown. He soon proceeded to Sand- 
wich, (June 20, 1475,) and his army, consisting of fifteen hun- 
dred men-at-arms, and ten times that number of archers, was 
transported to Calais. Peace was, however, soon made with the 
French king. 

An event occurred in 1477 which imbittered the remainder of 
Edward's days. His brother Clarence, now a widower, solicited 



1480 A D.] EDWARD THE FOURTH. 303 

the hand of Mary of Burgundy; his suit wa3 The death of the 
seconded by all the influence of his sister, the Juke of clarence, 
duchess Margaret; and it is thought that he would have suc- 
ceeded had it not been for the resolute opposition of Edward. 
The king was jealous of the ambition of a brother who might 
employ the power of Burgundy to win for himself the crown of 
England. From that moment the brothers viewed eacli other as 
enemies, and scarcely preserved in their intercourse the external 
forms of decorum. While they were thus irritated against each 
other, Stacey, one of his servants, was accused of practising the 
art of magic. On the rack he named as his accomplice Thomas 
Burdett, a gentleman in the duke's family. They were arraigned 
together before the judges, and, after a short trial, both were con- 
demned and executed. On the scaffold they protested against the 
sentence ; Clarence immediately professed himself the champion 
of their innocence, and Edward committed him to the Tower. 

A parliament was now summoned, and the unfortunate Clarence 
stood at the bar of the house of lords under a charge of high trea- 
son. Not one of the peers ventured to speak in his favor : the 
king produced his witnesses, and conducted the prosecution. The 
peers were persuaded by the arguments of the royal accuser ; they 
found Clarence guilty; and the duke of Buckingham, who had 
been appointed high steward for the occasion, pronounced on him 
the sentence of death. About ten days later, it was announced 
that the duke had died in the Tower. The manner of his death 
has never been ascertained ; but a silly report was circulated that 
he had been drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine. 

In 1480, war was declared between England and Scotland. By 
some writers, the rupture has been attributed to the intrigues of 
Louis, who secretly stimulated James to break his war between 
alliance with Edward ; by others, to the policy of land.' 
Edward, who sought to convert to his own advantage the dissen- 
sions between the king and the nobles of Scotland. James placed 
himself at the head of the Scottish, the duke of Gloucester at 
the head of the English army, and the borderers renewed their 
depredations; yet two years elapsed before the war assumed a 
formidable appearance; and even then, though it was carried on 
for a time with vigor, it led to no practical results. 

Edward was much disappointed respecting the projected mar- 



304 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1483. 



riage of his daughter Elizabeth with the dauphin of France. 
The death of Ed- When she had completed her twelfth year, it was 
ward - hoped that Louis, according to his engagement, 

would have sent for the princess, and have settled on her the sti- 
pulated annuity. After some years Louis, forgetting the princess 
Elizabeth, demanded Margaret of Austria for the dauphin. When 
the news reached Edward, he burst into a paroxysm of rage. 
Whether it were owing to the agitation of his mind, or to the 
sensual life in which he indulged, a slight ailment, which had 
been treated with neglect, suddenly exhibited the most dangerous 
symptoms. He spent the few days preceding his death in the 
exercises of religion, and directed that, out of the treasures 
which he should leave behind him, full restitution should be 
made to all whom he had wronged, or from whom he had extorted 
money. He expired 29th April, 1483, in the twenty-third year 
of his reign. 

Edward is said to have been the most accomplished, and, till he 

grew too unwieldy, the handsomest man of the age. The love of 

pleasure was his ruling passion. Few princes have 

His character. , ./. , . ',-, . j ,. 

been more magnificent in their dress, or more licen- 
tious in their conduct ; few have indulged more freely in the 
luxuries of the table. But such pursuits often interfered with his 
duties, and at last incapacitated him for active exertion. Even in 
youth, while he was fighting for the throne, he was always the last 
to join his adherents ; and in manhood, when he was firmly seated 
on it, he entirely abandoned the charge of military affairs to his 
brother the duke of Gloucester. To the chief supporters of the 
opposite party he was cruel and unforgiving ; the blood which he 
shed intimidated his friends no less than his foes ; and both lords 
and commons during his reign, instead of contending like their 
predecessors for the establishment of rights, and the abolition of 
grievances, made it their principal study to gratify the royal plea- 
sure. He was as suspicious as he was cruel. Every officer of 
government, every steward on his manors and farms, was employed 
as a spy on the conduct of all around him ; they regularly made 
to the king reports of the state of the neighborhood; and such 
was the fidelity of his memory, that it was difficult to mention an 
individual of any consequence, even in the most distant counties, 
with whose character, history, and influence he was not accurately 



1483 A. D.J EDWARD THE FIFTH. 305 



acquainted. Hence every project of opposition to his government 
was suppressed almost as soon as it was formed; and Edward 
might have promised himself a long and prosperous reign, had 
not continued indulgence enervated his constitution and sown the 
seeds of that malady which consigned him to the grave in the 
forty-first year of his age. He was buried with the usual pomp 
in the new chapel at Windsor. 

The king left two sons, Edward in his twelfth year, who suc- 
ceeded him, and Richard in his eleventh, duke of York, and earl 
marshal. Five of Edward's daughters survived him. One of 
these, Elizabeth, who had once been contracted to the dauphin, 
was married to Henry VII. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Pope. 


Germany. 


Spain. 


Sixtus IV. 


Frederic III. 


Isabella. 


Scotland. 


France. 


Ferdinand 


James III. 


Louis XI. 





The conduct of the Duke of Gloucester — The Duke is made Protector — Penanco 
of Jane Shore — He aspires to the Crown — The Crown is offered to him — He 
accepts it.— A. D. 1483. 

As soon as the king had expired, the council assembled, and 
resolved to proclaim his eldest son by the style of Edward V. 
The young prince, accompanied by his uncle, Earl Rivers, and his 
half-brother, Lord Grey, had been sent to Ludlow in Shropshire. 

Richard, duke of Gloucester, having the command of the army 
against the Scots, was employed on the borders at the time of his 
brother's death : but the moment he heard of that The conduct of 

, , . . __ . . . the duke of Glou- 

event, he repaired to l ork, summoned the gentle- cester. 
men of the county to swear allegiance to Edward V. ; and to give 

20® 



306 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1483. 



them an example, was himself the first who took the oath. At 
the same time he despatched letters to profess his affection and 
loyalty to his nephew, and proceeded southward, avowedly for the 
purpose of assisting at the coronation. Edward reached Stony 
Stratford, on his road to London, on the same day on which his 
uncle arrived at Northampton, about ten miles behind him. 
Gloucester arrived the next day at Stratford, proceeded to the 
house where the king resided, and approached him bending the 
knee and professing loyalty and attachment. But after this out- 
ward demonstration of respect, he apprehended Vaughan and 
Hawse, his confidential servants, ordered the rest of his retinue 
to disperse, and forbade by proclamation any of them to return 
into the royal presence under the penalty of death. The prince, 
abandoned and alarmed, burst into tears, but Gloucester, on his 
his knees, conjured him to dismiss his terrors, and conducted him 
back to Northampton. The queen-mother, foreboding the ruin 
of her family, retired with her second son, Richard, her five 
daughters, and the marquess of Dorset, into the sanctuary at 
Westminster. The capital was instantly thrown into confusion. 
The citizens armed themselves, and the adherents of the queen, 
without a leader, and without information, awaited the result in 
the most anxious uncertainty. 

On the 4th of May, 1483, Gloucester conducted his captive 
nephew into the metropolis. He was lodged with all the honors' 
of royalty in the palace of the bishop, but soon on the motion of 
the duke of Buckingham was removed to the Tower, and Glou- 
cester was appointed protector. 

While orders were issued and preparations made for the ex- 
pected coronation, Gloucester was busily employed in maturing 
his plans, and despatching instructions to his adhe- 0rder for th co- 
rents. The council met daily at the royal apart- nation. 
ments in the Tower ; the confidants of the protector at Crosby- 
place, in Bishopsgate-street, his residence in London. One day 
he entered the council-chamber at the Tower, stood at first in 
silence knitting his brows, and then, in answer to a remark by 
Lord Hastings, called him a traitor, and struck his fist upon the 
table. A voice at the door exclaimed, " Treason," and a body of 
ruffians bursting into the room arrested Hastings, Stanley, and 
the two prelates York and Ely. The last three were conveyed to 



1483 A. D.] EDWARD THE FIFTH. 307 

separate cells; Hastings was immediately executed, and a pro- 
clamation was issued the same afternoon, announcing that Hast- 
ings and his friends had conspired to put to death the dukes of 
Gloucester and Buckingham. 

Of the royal brothers the elder had been now securely lodged 
in the Tower; the younger still remained in sanctuary under the 
eye of Elizabeth. Him also, the protector resolved Elizabeth sur- 
to have at his mercy; and with that intention pro- son. 
ceeded to Westminster in his barge. Arrived there, he ordered 
a deputation of lords, with the cardinal of Canterbury at their 
head, to enter and demand the young prince from his mother. 
Elizabeth, convinced of the inutility of resistance, affected to ac- 
quiesce with cheerfulness in the demand. She called for her boy, 
gave him a last and hasty embrace, and turning her back, burst 
into tears. The innocent victim was conducted with great pomp 
to the Tower; and while the mother abandoned herself to the 
prophetic misgivings of her heart, her sons made themselves 
happy in the company of each other, little suspecting the wiles 
and cruelty of their unnatural uncle. 

Among those who had fallen victims to the sensuality of Ed- 
ward IV. was Jane, the wife of Shore, a young and opulent citi- 
zen. From the moment that her sin became public, Peiian ce of Jane 
she had been abandoned by her husband, but had Shore - 
contrived to retain the principal place in the king's affections till 
the time of his death. This woman, whose husband was now 
dead, Richard singled out for punishment. Her plate and 
jewels he appropriated to himself; her person he delivered over 
to the ecclesiastical court to be punished according to the canons, 
and with her feet bare, carrying a lighted taper in her hand, and 
preceded by an officer bearing the cross, she was compelled to 
walk through the streets of the capital, lined with an immense 
concourse of people. 

Gloucester now began openly to aim at the crown, and on 24th 
June, 1483, the duke of Buckingham, attended by several lords 
and gentlemen, harangued the citizens of London Gloucester aims 
from the hustings at Guildhall. He reminded ? y accepts^.' 
them of Edward's tyranny, and said that Richard duke of Glouces- 
ter was the only true issue of the duke of York. Contrary to 
his expectations, the citizens were still silent ; he at length re- 



308 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1483. 



quired an answer, whether they were in favour of the protector or 
not ; and a few persons, hired for the purpose, and stationed at 
the bottom of the hall, having thrown up their bonnets, and ex- 
claimed " King Kichard,' ; the duke gave the assembly his thanks 
for their assent, and the next morning with many lords and gen- 
tlemen proceeded to the palace, and demanded an audience of 
Gloucester. The protector affected to be surprised at their arrival; 
expressed apprehensions for his safety ; and when at last he showed 
himself at a window, appeared before them with strong marks of 
embarrassment and perturbation. Buckingham, with his per- 
mission, presented to him an address requesting that he would 
take upon him the crown and royal dignity. 

The protector replied, with affected modesty, that he was not 
ambitious : that royalty had no charms for him : that he was 
much attached to the children of his brother, and would preserve 
the crown to grace the brows of his nephew. " Sir," returned 
the duke of Buckingham, " if the lawful heir refuse the sceptre, 
we know where to find one who will cheerfully accept it." At 
these words Richard affected to pause j and after a short silence 
replied, that it was his duty to obey the voice of his people ; that 
since he was deemed the true heir and had been chosen by the 
three estates, he would assent to their petition. 

Thus ended this hypocritical farce. The next day, June 26, 
1483, Richard proceeded to Westminster in state, took possession 
of his pretended inheritance, by placing himself on the marble 
seat in the great hall, and ordered proclamation to be made that 
he forgave all offences which had been committed against him 
before that hour. 



1488 A. D.] 



RICHARD THE THIRD. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



gutaft ilu ^irir. 



309 



CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. 


Germany. 


Spain. 


Sixtus IV. 


Frederic III. 




Innocent VIII. 


France. 


Isabella 


Scotlayid. 


Louis XI. 


Ferdinand 


James III. 


Charles VIII. 





Coronation of Richard — The death of his two nephews — Conspiracy against 
him — He raises an army against the earl of Richmond — Is killed in the 
battle of Bosworth.— From A. D. 1483 to 1489. 



In less than a fortnight from his acceptance of the throne, 
Richard was crowned at Westminster with his consort Anne, the 
daughter of the late earl of Warwick. He em- coronation of 
ployed the first days of his reign in acts of favor Richard, 
and clemency : many of the nobility were raised to a higher rank ; 
and the treasures amassed and left by Edward were lavishly em- 
ployed in the reward of past, and the purchase of future services. 

Richard affected an extraordinary zeal for the suppression of 
crime and the reformation of manners. In all the great towns 
he administered justice in person, listened to petitions and dis- 
pensed favors ; and to please the men of the north, among whom 
he had for some years been popular, he was again crowned at 
York with his consort ; and the ceremony was performed with 
the same pomp and pageantry which had been exhibited in the 
metropolis. 

While Richard was thus spending his time in apparent security 
at York, he was apprized of the tempest which had been gather- 
ing behind him. The terror of his presence had confederacy 
before silenced the suspicions of the public ; but against him. 
he was no sooner gone, than men freely communicated their 
thoughts to each other, commiserated the lot of the young Ed- 
ward and his brother in the Tower, and openly condemned the 
usurpation of the crown by their unnatural uncle. The king, 



81C HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1483. 



though it was unknown, had already caused the murder of his 
nephews. By the friends of the princes, a resolution was taken 
to appeal to arms ; and the hopes of the confederates were raised 
by the unexpected accession of the duke of Buckingham, now a 
determined enemy to the king ; but when their hearts beat with 
the confidence of success, their hopes were suddenly dashed to 
the ground by the mournful intelligence that the two princes, for 
whom they intended to fight, were no longer alive. 

Soon after his departure from London, Richard had tampered 
in vain with Brakcnbury, the governor of the Tower. From 

The murder of Warwick he despatched Sir James Tyrrel, his 
the two princes. master of the horse, with orders that he should 
receive the keys and the command of the fortress during twenty- 
four hours. In the night Tyrrel, accompanied by Forest, a known 
assassin, and Dighton, one of his grooms, ascended the staircase 
leading to the chamber in which the two princes lay asleep. While 
Tyrrel watched without, Forest and Dighton entered the room, 
smothered their victims with the bed-clothes, called in their em- 
ployer to view the dead bodies, and by his orders buried them at 
the foot of the staircase. 

The intelligence was received with horror both by the friends 
and the foes of the usurper ; but, if it changed the object, it did 

Conspiracy in not dissolve the union of the conspirators. The 
of Richmond. bishop of Ely proposed that the crown should be 

offered to Henry, the young earl of Richmond, the representative, 
in right of his mother, of the house of Lancaster ; but on the 
condition that he should marry the princess Elizabeth, to whom 
the claim of the house of York had now devolved. The sugges- 
tion was approved of, and a messenger was despatched to Bre- 
tagne, to inform the earl of the agreement, to hasten his return 
to England, and to announce the eighteenth of October [1483] 
as the day fixed for the general rising in his favor. 

When the answer of Henry was received, it was soon com- 
municated to Richard, who prepared for the contest, summoned 
all his adherents to meet him with their retainers at Leicester, 
proclaimed Buckingham a traitor, and sent for the great seal from 
Loudon. On the appointed day the rising took place. Had 
Henry then landed, the reign of the usurper would probably have 
been terminated. But though Henry had sailed from St. Malo 



1485 A. D.] RICHARD THE THIRD. 311 

with a fleet of forty sail, the weather was so tempestuous that 
but few could follow him across the channel ; and when he reached 
the coast of Devon, the insufliciency of his force forbade him to 
disembark. Buckingham was deserted by his followers, taken 
prisoner, and executed. The insurgents dispersed; the marquess 
of Dorset and bishop of Exeter crossed the channel to the coast 
of Bretagne ; and others found an asylum in the fidelity of their 
neighbors, and the respect which was still paid to the sanctuaries. 

When the conqueror had traveled the southern counties, he 
returned to the capital, and summoned a parliament, which pro- 
nounced him undoubted king of this realm of Eng- ^^ king 
land ; and entailed the crown on his son Edward a Iarme, J- 
prince of Wales. Still the king was seriously alarmed at the 
idea of a marriage between the young earl of Richmond and the 
eldest of the daughters of Edward IV. Henry of himself could 
not advance any right to the crown. But the Yorkists, convinced 
of the death of the two sons of Edward, considered his eldest 
daughter as rightful sovereign ; and the moment Henry bound him- 
self by oath to marry that princess, they swore fealty to him as the 
future husband of her who was by succession queen of England. 

To defeat this project now became the chief policy of Richard. 
That he might draw the late queen out of the D eath of RIch . 
sanctuary, he tempted her with the most flattering ara ' s i ueeu - 
promises, and harassed her with the most terrible threats; so 
that at length she came to court. Richard's queen soon died, (it 
was supposed by poison,) and he was anxious to marry his niece, 
but was dissuaded from this course. At length he was informed 
by his emissaries, that the earl of Richmond had raised an army 
of three thousand adventurers, most of them Normans; and that 
a fleet was lying in the mouth of the Seine to transport them 
to England. He affected to receive the intelligence with joy; 
and immediately, to prepare the public for the event, published 
a long and artful proclamation, calling on the people to defend 
him against all traitors. Having issued instructions to his 
friends in the maritime counties, Richard sent for the great 
seal, and fixed his head-quarters at Nottingham. On the 1st of 
August, 1485, his competitor sailed from Harfleur; nonry lrmds at 
on the seventh he landed at Milford Haven, and Milford IIaTen - 
directed his march through the northern districts of Wales, a 



812 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1485. 



tract of country in the interest of the Stanleys. He met with 
little to oppose or to encourage him ; and when he took possession 
of Shrewsbury, his army did not exceed four thousand men. A 
week elapsed before Richard heard of his landing; but orders 
were instantly despatched for all his subjects to meet him at Lei- 
cester. The duke of Norfolk obeyed, as did the earl of North- 
umberland, the Lord Lovet, and others. At Leicester the king 
found himself at the head of a numerous and well-appointed army, 
which, had it been attached to its leader, might have trampled 
under foot the contemptible force that followed the banner of his 
competitor. But Henry, assured by the promises of his secret 
adherents, continued to press forward. On the twenty-first of 
Battle of Bos- August Richard rode from Leicester with the 

worth, and the 1 • 1 i i i i -i 

death of ilk-hard, crown on his head, and encamped about two miles 
from the town of Bosworth. The same night, Henry proceeded 
from Tamworth to Atherston, where he joined the Stanleys, and 
was encouraged by the repeated arrivals of deserters from the 
enemy. In the morning both armies (that of Richard was double 
in number) advanced to Redmore; and the vanguards, commanded 
by the duke of Norfolk and the earl of Oxford, engaged. Richard 
was dismayed to see the Stanleys opposed to him, the earl of 
Northumberland remaining inactive at his post, and his men 
wavering and on the point of flying, or going over to his com- 
petitor. Chancing to espy Henry, he determined to win the day, 
or perish in the attempt. Spurring his horse and exclaiming, 
" Treason, treason, treason," he slew with his own hand Sir 
William Brandon, the bearer of the hostile standard, struck to 
the ground Sir John Cheney, and made a desperate blow at his 
rival, when he was overpowered by numbers, thrown from his 
horse, and immediately slain. Lord Stanley, taking up the crown, 
placed it on the head of Henry, and the conqueror was instantly 
greeted with the shouts of " Long live King Henry." The body of 
the late king was stript, laid across a horse behind a pursuivant 
at arms, and conducted to Leicester, where, after it had been 
exposed for two days, it was buried with little ceremony in the 
church of the Grey Friars. Henry entered the town with the 
same royal state with which Richard had marched out on the pre- 
ceding day. He was careful, however, not to stain his triumph 
with blood. Of all his prisoners three only suffered death : the 



1485 A. D.] HENRY THE SEVENTH. 313 

notorious Oatesby, and two persons of the name of Brecher, who 
probably had merited that distinction by their crimes. 

Of the character of Richard it is unnecessary to say much. If 
he was guilty of the crimes laid to his charge, he was little better 
than a monster in human shape. Writers have indeed existed in 
modern times who have attempted to prove his innocence; but 
their arguments are rather ingenious than conclusive, and dwindle 
into groundless conjectures when confronted with the evidence 
which may be arrayed against them. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. 
Innocent VIII. 
Alexander VI. 
Pius III. 
Julius II. 



Scotland. 
James III. 
James IV. 

Germany. 
Frederic III. 
Maximilian. 



France. 
Charles VIII. 
Louis XII. 
Spain. 
Isabella. 1 
Ferdinand, j 



The Coronation of Henry — The Settlement of the Crown — Insurrection in favor 
of the pretended Earl of Warwick — War in Bretagne — Imposture of Perkin 
Warbeck — Marriage and Death of Prince Arthur — Henry's Death and Cha- 
racter.— From A. D. 1485 to 1509. 

From the field of Bosworth, Henry proceeded to Leicester. 
Victory had placed the crown on his temples; and the absence of 
a rival secured to him its present possession. The The coronation 
fall of the usurper excited little regret. No man of Henry- 
could pity his death, who had pitied the fate of his unoffending 
nephews. When the conqueror entered the capital, he was re- 
ceived with unequivocal demonstrations of joy. But his corona- 
tion was delayed, and the gladness of the public was damped by 
the sudden spread of a disease, which acquired from its predomi- 
nant symptoms the appellation of the sweating sickness. At the 
u 27 



314 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1486. 



end of the month its violence began to abate, and the new king 
received the rite of coronation from the hands of the cardinal 
archbishop of Canterbury. 

Soon after the coronation the king met his parliament. In the 
settlement of the crown by legislative enactment, he proceeded 

Tho nottiemcnt w ^ n cautious and measured steps. In the act of 
of the crown. settlement itself, no mention was made of Eliza- 

beth or her heirs; even Henry's own claim was studiously omit- 
ted ; and it was merely enacted that the inheritance of the crown 
should be in the person of King Henry VII. and his heirs. But 
this cautious policy, and in particular this silence with respect to 
the princess, seems to have alarmed not only the partisans of the 
house of York, but even Henry's own friends. He soon married 
Elizabeth, but if the ambition of the princess was flattered by 
this union, we are told that she had little reason to congratulate 
herself on the score of domestic happiness ; that Henry treated 
her with harshness and with neglect ; and that, in his estimation, 
neither the beauty of her person nor the sweetness of her disposi- 
tion could atone for the deadly crime of being a descendant of 
the house of York. 

After his marriage and the dissolution of the parliament, the 
new monarch, in imitation of his predecessors, resolved to signalize 

insurrection of tne commencement of his reign by a progress 
Lord Loveii. through the kingdom. He was stopped at Ponte- 

fract by the intelligence that Lord Lovell had raised a force and 
was preparing to surprise him at his entry into York. But Hen- 
ry's court was now attended by most of the southern and northern 
nobility; and their followers formed a pretty numerous army. 
The duke of Bedford led the royalists; by his order an offer of 
pardon was made to all who should return to their duty ; and the 
insurgent force immediately dispersed. 

The king made his entry into York with royal magnificence. 
Thence he returned through Worcester, Hereford, Gloucester, and 
Bristol, to London, to receive a numerous and splendid embassy 
sent by James, king of Scotland. As the former truce between 
the two crowns was supposed to have expired at the death of 
Richard, both kings readily consented to its renewal, but the tur- 
bulence and discontent of the Scottish nobility compelled James 
to limit its duration to three years. In September, 1486, the 



I486 A. D.] HENRY THE SEVENTH. 315 



queen was safely delivered of a son, whose birth gave equal joy 
to the king and the nation. He was christened The pretended 
with extraordinary parade in the cathedral ; and at earl Warwick, 
the font received the name of Arthur, in memory of the celebrated 
king of the Britons, from whom Henry wished it to be thought 
that he was himself descended. Soon afterward one Richard 
Simons, a priest of Oxford, entirely unknown in Ireland, landed 
at Dublin with a boy about fifteen years of age, and presented his 
ward to the earl of Kildare, the lord deputy, under the name of 
Edward Plantagenet, son of Clarence, and earl of Warwick, and 
reported to have been murdered. He implored the protection of 
that nobleman for a young and innocent prince, who, by escaping 
from the Tower, had avoided the fate similar to that of his unfor- 
tunate cousins, the sons of Edward IV. The boy — he was the 
son of Thomas Simnel, a joiner at Oxford — had been well in- 
structed in the part which he had to perform. His person was 
handsome ; his address had something in it which seemed to be- 
speak nobility of descent ; and he could relate with apparent ac- 
curacy his adventures at Sheriff-Hutton, in the Tower, and during 
his escape. The Butlers, the bishops of Cashel, Tuam, Clogher, 
and Ossory, and the citizens of Waterford, remained steady in 
their allegiance ; the rest of the population, relying on the acqui- 
escence or authority of Kildare, admitted the title of the new 
Plantagenet, without doubt or investigation ; and the adventurer 
was proclaimed by the style of Edward VI., king of England and 
France, and lord of Ireland. 

When the intelligence reached Henry he assembled a great 
council of peers and prelates, and by their advice published a par- 
don which extended to every species of treason. The king's con- 
He conducted the real earl of Warwick from the sion. 
Tower to St. Paul's, that he might be publicly recognised by the 
citizens. This prudent measure satisfied the people of England. 
They laughed at the imposture in Ireland, while the Irish main- 
tained that theirs was the real Plantagenet. The earl of Lincoln 
repaired to the court of his aunt, the duchess of Burgundy, con- 
sulted with her and Lord Lovell, and receiving an aid of two 
thousand veterans under Martin Swartz, an experienced oflicer, 
sailed to Ireland and landed at Dublin. His arrival gave new im- 
portance to the cause of the counterfeit Warwick. Though Lin- 



316 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1487. 



coin had frequently conversed with the real prince at Shene, he 
advised that the impostor should be crowned, and the ceremony 
of his coronation was performed by the bishop of Meath. When 
Henry first heard of the departure of Lincoln, he made a progress 
through the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, in which the 
earl possessed considerable interest; and thence proceeded through 
Northampton and Coventry to his castle of Kenilworth, which he 
had appointed for the residence of his queen and his mother. 
He soon found himself surrounded by his friends with their re- 
tainers, and orders were published against any robbery or other 
misconduct by his army. 

The two armies, as if by mutual compact, hastened toward 
Newark. It was in vain that the earl, as he advanced, tempted 

The battle at ^ ne l° va lty 0I " tne inhabitants by proclaiming Ed- 
Stoke, ward VI. the head of the house of York. Disap- 
pointed but undismayed, Lincoln resolved to stake his life on the 
event of a battle ; and precipitated his march that he might find 
the king unprepared. The royalists had moved from Kenilworth 
by Coventry, Leicester, and Nottingham, and their numbers daily 
increased. The vanguard, under the earl of Oxford, was attacked 
at Stoke by the insurgents, amounting to eight thousand men. 
The action was short but sanguinary. The Germans fought and 
perished with the resolution of veterans; the adventurers from 
Ireland displayed their characteristic bravery, but with their darts 
and " skeans" (for the English settlers had adopted the arms of the 
natives) they were no match for the heavy cavalry; and though a 
portion only of the royalists was engaged, the victory was won 
with the slaughter of one-half of their opponents. Simons and 
his pupil surrendered, the latter of whom obtained his pardon, 
resumed his real name of Lambert Simnel, was made a scullion 
in the royal kitchen, and afterward, in reward of his good con- 
duct, was raised to the more honorable office of falconer. 

A court was at this time established to punish those who asso- 
ciated themselves under any chief. The limits of its jurisdiction, 

The court of the as fixed by statute, were extended till they included 
bushed. libels, misdemeanors, and contempts ; and the 

power of pronouncing that judgment on delinquents to which they 
would have been liable if they had been convicted after the due 
course of law, grew in practice into a power of punishing at dis- 



1487 A. D.] HENRY THE SEVENTH. 317 

cretion, and with a severity which provoked the curses and hatred 
of all classes of men. This court was called the court of the star- 
chamber, from the accidental decorations of the room in which it 
usually sat. 

As soon as the king was relieved from domestic enemies, he 
was compelled to direct his attention to the continent. The French 
monarchs had gradually obtained possession of the 
other great fiefs of the crown ; Bretagne alone re- 
tained its own prince and its ancient constitution. But the duke 
Francis was advanced in age, and weak both in mind and body. 
His family consisted of two daughters, the elder of whom, named 
Anne, had reached her twelfth year. Charles VIII. ascended the 
throne of France in 1483, at the age of fourteen, and the states 
placed the young king under the tutelage of his elder sister, 
Anne of France. The duke of Orleans, though he had not reached 
his twenty-fourth year, was offended with the choice ; he raised 
forces against the regent, and was compelled to seek the protection 
of the duke of Bretagne. The regency declared war, for the ap- 
parent purpose of compelling the duke to pardon the exiles, and 
give up the French prince, but with the real view of preventing 
the marriage of Anne of Bretagne. Both parties applied to 
Henry, who was perplexed, and, unwilling to offend either, offered 
himself as a mediator between both. Charles, while he professed 
himself willing to accept the mediation, prosecuted the war with 
additional vigor. The duke of Orleans was made prisoner and 
Francis signed a treaty, by which he consented that Charles should 
retain all his conquests, and that neither of his daughters should 
marry without the approbation of the French king. But the se- 
quel was still more perplexing. In a few weeks Francis died, and 
soon afterward his younger daughter followed him to the grave. 
The king of France, in virtue of his pretended claim, demanded 
the whole succession ; hostilities recommenced ; and before Christ- 
mas one-half of Bretagne was in the hands of the French. The 
clamor of the nation now roused Henry from his apathy ; he sum- 
moned a parliament. The English people were anxious to rescue 
a young and unfortunate princess from the power of a victorious 
enemy ; but the cold-hearted king had determined to enrich him- 
self from the generosity of the one and the necessities of the 
other. 

27* 



318 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1495 

To Anne he sent an army of six thousand archers to serve for 
six months; but on severe conditions, and these auxiliaries, as 
soon as the six months of their service were completed, returned 
to their own country without having rendered any important aid. 

Soon afterward, Maximilian of Germany married, by proxy, 

Anne of Bretagne ; and, within a few weeks, the lord D'Albret, 

one of her suitors, to revenge the disappointment, betrayed to the 

French the important city of Nantes. War was 

Anne of Bretagne. , , r . ... ,, . , . , . ,„ 

now renewed, Maximilian, thinking nimsclt se- 
cure, neglected to go and succor his wife ; Henry harassed her 
with demands of money for the repayment of his former expenses ; 
and Charles of France formed a plan, suspected by neither of these 
powers, of compelling her to break her contract with Maximilian, 
and to marry himself. When the proposal was made to her, she 
rejected it with disdain. But a French army soon appeared be- 
fore the gates of Ilennes. There remained no hope of escape. 
She must be either the wife or the captive of Charles. Subdued 
at last by importunity and terror, she consented to marry the 
French king. Tlie English king said he would punish the perfidy 
of France respecting Bretagne, and after much delay he landed 
at Calais with 1600 men-at-arms, and 2500 infantry ; but soon 
made peace with the French king. 

At this time appeared one of the most mysterious personages 
recorded in English history. About the time when Henry pub- 
Tiie story of lislaeci his intention of making war against France, 
Perkin Warbeck. a merchant vessel from Lisbon cast anchor in the 
cove of Cork. Among the passengers was a youth whom no per- 
son knew, about twenty years of age, of handsome features and 
courtly deportment. It was soon rumored that he was Kichard, 
duke of York, the second son of Edward IV., and as the English 
settlers were warmly attached to the house of York, the citizens 
of Cork declared in his favor. He soon afterward accepted an 
invitation from the ministers of Charles VIII. to visit France, 
and place himself under the protection of that monarch. He was 
received by the king as the real duke of York, and the rightful 
heir to the English throne. Henry was perplexed and alarmed. 
He hastened to sign the peace with the French monarch; and 
Charles instantly ordered the adventurer to quit his dominions. 
Leaving France, he solicited the protection of Margaret, the dowa- 



1497 A. D.] HENRY THE SEVENTH. 319 



ger duchess of Burgundy, who received him with joy, appointed 
him a guard of thirty halberdiers, and gave him the surname of 
" The white rose of England." And yet for three years after he 
first set forth his claim he never made any attempt to establish 
it by legal proof, or to enforce it by an appeal to the sword. In 
July, 1495, he sailed from the coast of Flanders with a few hun- 
dred adventurers attached to his fortunes ; and, while Henry was 
on a visit to his mother at Latham, in Lancashire, made a descent 
in the neighborhood of Deal. But the inhabitants attacked the 
invaders, made many prisoners, and drove the remainder into their 
boats. All the captives were hanged by the order of Henry. 
Warbeck, despairing of success in England, sailed to Ireland, and 
with the aid of the earl of Desmond laid siege to Waterford ; but 
Sir Edward Poynings soon compelled him to flee with the loss of 
three of his ships. 

The repulse of Warbeck and the complaint of the Flemish mer- 
chants, induced the archduke of the Netherlands to solicit a re- 
conciliation with Henry : and, after a few con- warbeck returns 

—is received by the 

ferences between their respective envoys, a treaty king of Scotland, 
was signed, by which every facility was afforded to the trade of 
the two countries ; and there was appended to it a provision that 
each of the contracting parties should banish from his dominions 
the known enemies of the other. "Warbeck, therefore, could no 
longer remain in Flanders, where he had taken refuge. He sailed 
to Cork ; but the Irish refused to venture their lives in his service. 
From Cork he passed to Scotland, and exhibited, it is said, to the 
king recommendatory letters from Charles VIII. and his friend 
the duchess of Burgundy. James received the adventurer with 
kindness, paid to him the honors due to the prince whose character 
he had assumed ; and to evince the sincerity of his friendship, 
gave to him in marriage his near relation, the lady Catherine 
Gordon, daughter to the carl of Huntley. Warbeck mustered un- 
der his standard 1400 men, outlaws from all nations ; to these 
James added all the forces it was in his power to raise ; and the 
combined army crossed the borders in the depth of winter and 
when no preparation had been made to oppose them. 

As soon as the intelligence of this invasion reached Henry, he 
raised forces, summoned a parliament, and obtained a grant of sup- 
plies. In most counties the tax was levied without opposition, 



320 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1499 



but in Cornwall the people refused to pay their money for an ob 
ject which, it was pretended, did not concern theni, but the na- 
tives of the northern counties. They took up arms and marched 
to London; but Henry, who bad been joined by many of the no- 
bility, soon defeated them. 

The enthusiasm which had been excited by the first appearance 
of Warbeck in Scotland had long been on the decline ; and when 
he saw the current of public opinion setting against him, he de- 

Warbeck sur- P art ed from Scotland with four ships and a few 
renders to Henry, companions. He first touched at Cork, and soli- 
cited in vain the aid of the earl of Desmond. From Cork he di- 
rected his course across the channel to Whitsand Bay ; and pro- 
ceeding by land to Bodmin, unfurled the standard of Richard IV. 
He soon, however, submitted, and threw himself on the mercy of 
Henry. The king refused to admit him into his presence. When 
he returned to London, Warbeck rode in his suite, surrounded by 
multitudes, who gazed with wonder at the man whose claim and 
adventures had so long engaged their attention. He was con- 
ducted as a spectacle through the principal streets of the city, and 
ordered to confine himself within the precincts of the palace. He 
was compelled to stand a whole day in the stocks at Westminster 
Hall, and the next in Cheapside ; and on both occasions to read 
to the people a confession of his having been an impostor. After 
suffering this punishment he was committed to the Tower. 

The real earl of Warwick and the pretended duke of York 
were now fellow-prisoners in the Tower. They soon contracted a 

The execution of mutual friendship, and adopted a plan for their 

Warbeck and the mi • i 1 • i ■ it i 

earl of Warwick, escape. Their plans, which involved a new revolt, 
were discovered, and Warbeck was indicted in Westminster Hall, 
condemned and executed. The earl of Warwick was arraigned 
at the bar of the house of lords. Of his own accord he pleaded 
guilty; the earl of Oxford, as lord steward, pronounced judgment; 
and after a few days Henry signed the warrant for the execution 
of the last legitimate descendant of the Plantagenets whose pre- 
tensions could excite the jealousy of the house of Tudor. 

From this period, the ambition of Henry was no more alarmed 
by pretenders to the crown, nor his avarice distressed by the 
expense of foreign expeditions. The principal events of his reign 
during the ten years of tranquillity which preceded his death 



1502 A. D.] HENRY THE SEVENTH. 321 



consisted of treaties with other powers, and expedients to amass 
money. 

The truces between England and Scotland, though frequently 
renewed and enforced with menaces and punishments, were but 
ill observed by the fierce and turbulent inhabitants Truces with En „ 
of the borders. At length, however, James of land ana Scotland. 
Scotland proposed to marry Margaret, the eldest daughter of 
Henry. By the English prince, the offer was most joyfully ac- 
cepted ; and when some of his council expressed a fear that then, 
in failure of the male line, England might hereafter become an 
appendage to the Scottish crown, " No/' he replied, " Scotland 
will become an appendage to the English ; for the smaller must 
follow the larger kingdom." The event verified the king's pre- 
diction. The parties were solemnly affianced to each other in 
London, in the queen's chamber, the earl of Bothwell acting as 
proxy for James ; tournaments were performed for two days in 
honor of the ceremony; and to exhilarate the populace, twelve 
hogsheads of claret were tapped in the streets, and twelve bonfires 
kindled at night. At the same time was concluded, after one 
hundred and seventy years of war, or of truces little better than 
war, a treaty of perpetual peace between the two kingdoms. 

Henry had always cultivated with particular solicitude the alli- 
ance of Ferdinand, king of Castile and Arragon ; and the more 
strongly to cement their friendship, had proposed Marriage of Prince 
a marriage between his eldest son, Arthur, prince Ar thur. 
of Wales, and Catherine, the fourth daughter of the Castilian 
monarch. The marriage was postponed on account of the youth 
of Arthur ; but when he had completed his twelfth year a dis- 
pensation was obtained to enable him to make the contract ; and 
the marriage ceremony was performed in the chapel of his manor 
of Bewdley, where Catherine was represented by her proxy, the 
Spanish ambassador. She was nine or ten months older than 
Arthur ; and when the latter had completed his fourteenth year, 
Henry demanded her of her parents ; and she accordingly came 
to England. She renewed to Arthur the contract which had 
been made by her proxy, and the marriage ceremony was per- 
formed in St. Paul's. The abilities of Arthur, the sweetness of 
his temper, and his proficiency in learning, had gained him the 
affection of all who knew him ; and his bride, by her beauty, 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1509 



modesty, and accomplishments, became the object of general ad- 
miration. But the hopes of the nation were unexpectedly blighted 
by his premature death in the fourth month after his marriage. 
The intelligence of this event alarmed Ferdinand and Isabella, 
the parents of the young widow. Anxious to preserve the friend- 
ship of England as a counterpoise to the enmity of France, they 
hastened to propose a marriage between their daughter and her 
brother-in-law, Henry, now apparent heir to the throne. A year 
elapsed before it was finally agreed that the marriage should be 
contracted within two months after the arrival of a dispensation 
from the pope. The dispensation was obtained, and the parties 
were contracted to each other. 

While the king sought by foreign alliances to add to the secu- 
rity of his family, he was equally solicitous to amass riches at 
the expense of his subjects. The men whom he employed as the 
agents of oppression were Sir Richard Empson and Edmund Dud- 
ley, both lawyers, of inventive heads and unfeeling hearts ; who 
despoiled the subject to fill the king's coffers, and despoiled the 
king to enrich themselves. 

The king was for many years visited with regular fits of the 
gout. His strength visibly wasted away, and every spring the 
Death of Henry mos t serious apprehensions were entertained for his 
April 21, 1509. ]if e _ Whatever might be the hopes with which he 
flattered himself, his preachers did not allow him to be ignorant 
of his danger. From the pulpit they admonished him of the ex- 
tortion of his officers, and exhorted him to prepare for death by 
making reparation to the innocent sufferers. Henry does not 
appear to have been displeased with their freedom. He forgave 
all offences against the crown, with the exception of felony and 
murder; satisfied the creditors of all persons confined for debts 
under the amount of forty shillings ; and ordered strict justice to 
be done to all who had been injured by the tyranny of the minis- 
ters. The prosecutions, however, were soon revived ; it was con- 
tended that no injustice could be committed where the conviction 
was procured by due process of law; and several of the most 
respectable citizens in London were heavily amerced, and in de- 
fault of payment thrown into prison. Thus Empson and Dudley 
continued to pursue their iniquitous career till they were arrested 
by the death of the king, who, on the 21st April, 1509, sank 



1509 A. D.] HENRY THE SEVENTH. 323 



under the violence of his disease. He left three children ; a son 
Henry, who inherited his father's crown, and two daughters, Mar- 
garet, married to James, king of Scots, and Mary, afterward the 
wife of Louis XII., king of France. 

To Henry, hy his contemporaries, was allotted the praise of 
political wisdom. He seems, indeed, to have been formed hy 
nature for the circumstances in which accident had 
placed him. "With a mind dark and mistrustful, 
tenacious of its own secrets and adroit in divining the secrets of 
others ; capable of employing the most unprincipled agents, and 
of descending to the meanest artifices, he was able to unravel the 
plots, to detect the impostures, and to defeat the projects of all 
his opponents. But there was nothing open in his friendship, 
nothing generous in his emnity. His suspicions kept him always 
on his guard ; he watched with jealousy the conduct of his very 
ministers, and never unbosomed himself with freedom even to his 
consort or his mother. It was his delight to throw an air of 
mystery over the most ordinary transactions ; nor would pride or 
policy allow him, even when it appeared essential to his interests, 
to explain away the doubts, or satisfy the curiosity of his subjects. 
The consequence was, that no one knew what to believe or what 
to expect. He appears to have been the first of our kings since the 
accession of Henry III. who confined his expenses within the limits 
of his income. But the civil wars had swept away those crowds 
of annuitants and creditors that formerly used to besiege the 
doors of the exchequer ; and the revenue of the crown came to 
him free from incumbrances and augmented by forfeitures. Hence 
he was enabled to reign without the assistance of parliament; and, 
if he occasionally summoned the two houses, it was only when a 
decent pretext for demanding a supply offered to his avarice a 
bait which it could not refuse. He had, however, little to appre- 
hend from the freedom or the remonstrances of these assemblies. 
That spirit of resistance to oppression, that ardour to claim and 
establish their liberties, which characterized the parliaments of 
former times, had been extinguished in the feuds between " the 
two roses." The temporal peers who had survived the storm 
were few in number, and without the power of their ancestors ; 
they feared by alarming the suspicions of the monarch to re- 
plunge themselves into the dangers from which they had so lately 



324 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1509. 

emerged ; and the commons readily adopted the humble tone and 
submissive demeanor of the upper house. Henry, and the same 
may be observed of his two last predecessors, found them always 
the obsequious ministers of his pleasure. 

But if the king was economical in his expenses, and eager in 
the acquisition of wealth, it should also be added, that he often 
rewarded with the generosity, and on occasions of ceremony dis- 
played the magnificence of a great monarch. His charities were 
many and profuse. Of his buildings, his three convents of friars 
fell in the next reign ; his chapel at Westminster still exists, a 
monument of his opulence and taste. He is said to have occa- 
sionally advanced loans of money to merchants engaged in pro- 
fitable branches of trade ; and not only gave the royal license to 
the attempt of the Venetian navigator Cabot, but fitted out a ship 
at his own expense to join in the voyage. Cabot sailed from 
Bristol, discovered the island of Newfoundland, crept along the 
coast of Florida, and returned to England. It was the first Eu- 
ropean expedition that ever reached the American continent. 



1509 A. D.] 



HENRY THE EIGHTH. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



h\u% t\t gigtyfr 



CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



325 



Popes. 


Scotland. 


France. 




James IV. 


Louis XII. 


Julius II. 


James V. 


Francis I. 


Leo X. 


Mary. 


Spain. 


Adrian VI. 


Germany. 


Ferdinand. ) 
Isabella, j 


Clement VII. 


Maximilian. 


Paul III. 


Charles V. 


Charles V. 



The Accession and Marriage of Henry — "War with Franco — Defeat of the Scots 
at Flodden — The Rise and Power of Wolsey — Execution of the Duke of 
Buckingham — Wolsey aspires to the Papacy — Peace with France — Origin 
of the Reformation — Henry writes against Luther — Is declared Defender 
of the Faith — Anne Boleyn — Disgrace of Wolsey — The rise of Cromwell— 
The King marries Anne Boleyn — Cranmer — The King assumes the title 
of Head of the Church — Papal Bull against Henry — Dissolution of tho Mo- 
nasteries — Death of Queen Catherine — Marriage with Anne of Cleves — Fall 
of Cromwell — Marriage with Catherine Howard— The King's last illness — 
His Death and Character.— A. D. 1509 to 1542. 



The late king had forfeited, long before his death, the affec- 
tions of his people; and the accession of his son, of the same 
name, was hailed as the commencement of a new Accession of 
era. The young Henry had almost completed his Henr y vin - 
eighteenth year. He was handsome in person, apparently gene- 
rous in disposition, and adroit in every martial and fashionable 
exercise. 

With the unanimous assent of the council, he was now publicly 
married to the Spanish princess by the archbishop of Canterbury ; 
their coronation followed, and these two events were celebrated 
with rejoicings, which occupied the court during the remaining 
part of the year. 

The first public acts of the young monarch were calculated to 
win the affections of his people. Henry confirmed by proclama- 
tion the general pardon which had been granted by his father, 

28 



326 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1509. 



offered redress to all persons who had been aggrieved by the late 
commission of forfeitures, and ordered the arrest of Empson and 
Dudley, who were soon afterward tried, convicted, and put to 
death. 

Peace abroad and tranquillity at home, allowed the young mo- 
narch to indulge his natural taste for amusements and pleasure. 

Henry iurades ^ was not l° n g> however, before a quarrel between 
France. Julius, the Roman pontiff, and Louis XII., king 

of France, caused Henry to engage in war. Henry took part 
with the pope, and invaded France ; in which country war raged 
with varying success for a considerable time. 

The memorable battle of Flodden was fought at this period. 
James IV. of Scotland had married Margaret, the sister of Henry. 
This new connection did not, however, extinguish the hereditary 
partiality of the Scottish prince for the ancient alliance with 
France; and his jealousy of his English brother was repeatedly 
irritated by a succession of real or supposed injuries. When 
Henry joined in the league against Louis, the Scottish court be- 
came the scene of the most active negotiations, the French am- 
bassadors claiming the aid of Scotland, the English insisting on 
its neutrality. James renewed the ancient alliance between Scot- 
land and France, with an additional clause reciprocally binding 
each prince to aid his ally against all men whomsoever. Henry 
was already in France; and James despatched his fleet with a 
body of three thousand men to the assistance of Louis. At the 
same time a Scottish herald sailed to France, the bearer of a let- 
ter from James to Henry, requiring the retreat of the English 
army out of that country; to which demand Henry refused to 
accede. James, at the head of one of the most numerous armies 
that had ever been raised in Scotland, passed the Tweed, and 
turning to the north, took numerous strong places. The earl 
The little of of Surrey challenged James to battle, and the 

Flodden Field, and „,,.,, . 11? , • , 

the death of James. Scottish king, leading his army across the river, 
encamped on the hill of Flodden, the last of the Cheviot moun- 
tains, which border on the vale of Tweed. The memorable en- 
gagement of " Flodden Field" took place on the 9th September, 
1513. James fought on foot, surrounded by some thousands 
of his chosen warriors, who were cased in armour, and on that 
account less exposed to the destructive aim of the English 



1513 A. D.] HENRY THE EIGHTH. 327 

archers. Animated by the presence and example of their mo- 
narch, they advanced steadily, and fought with a resolution which, 
if it did not win, at least deserved, the victory. Though Surrey 
made every effort, he could not arrest their progress ; they had 
penetrated within a few yards of the royal standard ; and James, 
ignorant of the result in other parts of the field, flattered him- 
self with the prospect of victory. But in the mean while, Sir Ed- 
ward Stanley, who commanded the left wing, had defeated the 
earls of Argyle and Lennox. The ranks of the Scots, as they 
descended the hill, were disordered by the murderous discharges 
of the archers; the moment they came into close combat, the 
confusion was completed by a sudden charge in flank from three 
companies of men-at-arms. They began to retreat; Stanley 
chased them over the summit of the hill ; and, wheeling to the 
right, led his followers against the rear of the mass commanded 
by James in person. In a few minutes that gallant monarch was 
slain by an unknown hand, and fell about a spear's length from 
the feet of Surrey. The battle had begun between four and five 
in the afternoon, and was decided in something more than an 
hour. Six thousand horses were taken, with the park of artillery, I 
amounting to seventeen pieces. Lord Dacre recognised among 
the slain the body of the Scottish king, and conveyed it to Ber- 
wick, whence it was afterward carried to London, that it might be 
interred with suitable honours. 

When the news of this important victory reached the king 
of England, he was besieging Tournay. This city contained a 
population of eighty thousand souls, and though The sieo . of 
situate within the territory of another power, had Tourna y- 
long been distinguished by its attachment to the French crown. 
To the summons sent by Henry, the inhabitants returned a bold 
and chivalrous defiance ; but their resolution evaporated amid the 
fatigues and dangers of a siege, and on the eighth day they sub- 
mitted. 

Henry soon returned to England, proud of his victory, and 
spent the winter in preparations for new conquests which he con- 
templated. But Louis, humbled by a long series of disasters, pre- 
ferred negotiation to war. He appealed to the individual inte- 
rests of the confederates, infused into them suspicions of each 
other's sincerity, and successively detached them, one by one, 



328 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1513 



from the league against him. Louis soon died, and his successor, 
Francis I., renewed all the engagements of his predecessor to the 
satisfaction of the English monarch. 

Among the inferior dependants of Henry, there now appeared 

one whose aspiring views and superior talents rapidly enabled 

him to supplant every competitor. Thomas Wol- 

TheriseofWolsey. n T • i j -, \ ■> 

sey, a native ot Ipswich, and a clergyman, nad 
been appointed in the last reign one of the royal chaplains. After 
the death of his patron, he attached himself to the service of the 
bishop of Winchester, at whose recommendation he was intrusted 
with a secret and delicate negotiation at the imperial court ; and 
the expedition and address with which he executed his commis- 
sion, not only justified the discernment of his friends, but also 
raised the agent in the estimation of his sovereign. Before the 
death of Henry VII., he had been collated to the deanery of Lin- 
coln, one of the most wealthy preferments in the English church ; 
soon after the commencement of the present reign, we find him 
exercising the office of almoner to the king, and thus possessing 
every facility of access to the presence of the young monarch. 
Henry was captivated with the elegance of his manners and the 
gayety of his disposition. It was soon discovered that the most 
sure and expeditious way to the royal favor was through the re- 
commendation of the almoner ; and foreigners, as well as natives, 
eagerly solicited, and frecpiently purchased his patronage. Pre- 
ferments rapidly poured in upon him. He was made dean of 
York, then bishop of Lincoln; and, on the death of Cardinal 
Bambridge, succeeded that prelate in the archiepiscopal see of 
York. His preponderating influence in the council induced foreign 
princes to flatter him with compliments, and to seek his friend- 
ship with presents; and during fifteen years he governed the 
kingdom with more absolute sway than had fallen to the lot 
of any former minister. 

The affairs of Scotland, after the death of its king and the 
destruction of its nobility in the field of Flodden, presented for 
some time a melancholy scene of confusion and terror. By de- 
grees, however, the Scottish spirit recovered from its depression ; 
the call for revenge was echoed throughout the nation ; several 
chieftains gathered their retainers ; and the devas- 

The affairs of . ° . . ' 1 , 

Scotland. tation ot one inroad was repaid by the devasta- 



1513 A. D.] 



HENRY THE EIGHTH. 



329 



tion of another. The queen had been permitted, in conformity 
with the will of her husband, to assume the regency as guardian 
to her son James V. Seven months had not elapsed from the 
death of her husband, when she was safely delivered of a second 
son, Alexander, duke of Ross; but in less than three months 
afterward, she displeased both the nation and her brother by mar- 
rying the young earl of Angus. A national deputation invited 
the duke of Albany to assume the government of the kingdom. 
He consented, and compelled the queen to surrender the two 
princes, whom he placed under the custody of three lords ap- 
pointed by parliament. 

The French monarch, Francis, whose youth and accomplish- 
ments made him the idol of his people, had already formed the 
most gigantic projects of conquest and aggrandize- Francis kin? of 
ment. He soon put in motion the numerous army *»»»■ 
which he had collected with the avowed purpose of chastising the 
hostility of the Helvetic cantons ; but, instead of following the 
direct road either into Switzerland or Italy, he passed unex- 
pectedly between the maritime and Cottian Alps, and poured his 
cavalry into the extensive plains of Lombardy. His real object 
was now manifest. The Italian princes, whose jealousy had 
guarded to no purpose the accustomed roads over the Alps, were 
filled with consternation : in a consistory at Rome it was pro- 
posed to solicit the aid of Henry ; and in a few days later, Leo, 
to secure the mediation of Wolsey, named that minister cardinal 
priest of St. Cicely beyond the Tiber. 

After much deliberation in the English cabinet, it was resolved 
to follow a middle course between peace and war ', to avoid actual 
hostilities with France, but to animate its enemies with hopes, 
and to aid them with subsidies. Henry directed his attention to 
a matter which more nearly concerned his own interests — the 
conduct of the duke of Albany in Scotland. Against the regency 
of that prince he had remonstrated in strong and threatening 
terms. The Scottish parliament returned a firm, though respect- 
ful answer ; but Francis, who still dreaded the hostility of the 
king of England, advised the Scots to conclude a perpetual peace 
with Henry, and even required the regent, in quality of his sub- 
ject, to return to France. Albany obeyed, but before his de- 
parture, provision was made for the return of Queen Margaret, 
V 28* 



F 



530 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1518, 



who had sought an asylum iu England ; and a temporary council 
was appointed, in which the numbers of the two parties were 
nearly balanced, and under the nominal government of which, 
Scotland passed *bur years of dissension and anarchy. 

Francis, having won the duchy of Milan, determined to secure 
his conquest by disarming the hostility of his neighbors. He was 

rojice between soon at peace with all the powers of Europe, but 
land. ' felt alarmed at the unfriendly conduct of the king 

of England, who had aided his enemies. Friendship among 
European princes, however, arose at the suggestion of the pope ; 
and to cement the union between England and France, the dau- 
phin, an infant just born, was affianced to Mary, the daughter of 
Henry, a child not four years old. That every probable occasion 
of dispute might be done away, Tournay, with its dependencies, 
was restored to France, for the sum of sis hundred thousand 
crowns. Thus, after ten years of war and negotiation, of blood- 
shed and perfidy, were all the powers of Europe re-established in 
the same situation in which they had previously stood, with the 
exception of the king of Navarre, whose territories on the south 
of the Pyrenees could not be recovered from the unrelenting 
grasp of Spain. 

"Wolsey still retained the first place in the royal favor, and con- 
tinued to rise in power and opulence. He was made chancellor 
The wealth and and P a P al legate, and having repeatedly solicited 
power of Woisey. additional powers, at length possessed and exer- 
cised within the realm almost all the prerogatives of the sovereign 
pontiff. Nor was his ambition yet satisfied ; for at the death of 
each pope he labored, but in vain, to seat himself in the chair of 
St. Peter. His love of wealth was subordinate ouly to his love 
of power. As chancellor and legate he derived considerable 
emoluments from the courts in which he presided. He held 
other profitable appointments, and received pensions from the 
pope and from Francis. In justice to his memory, it should, 
however, be observed, that if he grasped at wealth, it was to 
spend, not to hoard it. His establishment was on the most 
princely scale, comprising eight hundred individuals. He spared 
no expense in his buildings ; and, as soon as he had finished the 
palace of Hampton Court, and furnished it to his taste, he gave 
the whole to Henry; perhaps the most maguificent present that 



1519 A. D.] HENRY THE EIGHTH. 331 

a subject ever made to his sovereign. He was a minister of con- 
summate address and commanding abilities; greedy of wealth, 
and power, and glory ; anxious to exalt the throne on which his 
own greatness was built, and the church of which he was so dis- 
tinguished a member; but capable, in the pursuit of these dif- 
ferent objects, of stooping to expedients which sincerity and jus- 
tice would disavow, and of adopting, through indulgence to the 
caprice and passions of the king, measures which often involved 
him in contradictions and difficulties, and ultimately occasioned 
his ruin. It is acknowledged, however, that he reformed many 
abuses in the church, and compelled the secular and regular 
clergy to live according to the canons. His office of chancellor 
afforded him the opportunity of displaying the versatility and 
superiority of his talents. He was not, indeed, acquainted with 
the subtleties and minutiae of legal proceedings, and on that ac- 
count was careful to avail himself of the knowledge and expe- 
rience of others ; but he always decided according to the dictates 
of his own judgment; and the equity of his decrees was uni- 
versally admitted and applauded. To appease domestic quarrels, 
and reconcile families at variance with each other, he was accus- 
tomed to offer himself as a friendly arbitrator between the parties ; 
that the poor might pursue their claims with facility and without 
expense, he established courts of requests ; in the ordinary admi- 
nistration of justice he introduced improvements which were re- 
ceived with gratitude by the country ; and he made it his pecu- 
liar care to punish with severity those offenders who had de- 
frauded the revenue, or oppressed the people. But his reputa- 
tion, and the ease with which he admitted suits, crowded the 
chancery with petitioners ; he soon found himself overwhelmed 
with a multiplicity of business; and the king, to relieve him, 
established four subordinate courts, of which that under the pre- 
sidency of the Master of the Rolls is still preserved. 

Literature found in the cardinal a constant and bountiful 
patron. He employed his influence in foreign courts to borrow 
valuable manuscripts for the purpose of transcrip- IIe is the patron 
tion. On native scholars he heaped preferment, of literature, 
and the most eminent foreigners were invited by him to teach in 
the universities. Both of these celebrated academies were the 
objects of his care ; but Oxford chiefly experienced his munifi- 



332 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1520 



cence in the endowment of seven lectureships, and the foundation 
of Christ Church, which, though he lived not to complete it, still 
exists, a splendid monument to his memory. As a nursery for 
this establishment, he erected another college at Ipswich, the 
place of his nativity. But these occupations at home did not 
divert his eyes from the shifting scenes of politics abroad. He 
was constantly informed of the secret history of the continental 
courts ; and his despatches, of which many are still extant, show 
that he was accustomed to pursue every event through all its 
probable consequences; to consider each measure in its several 
bearings ; and to furnish his agents with instructions beforehand 
for almost every contingency. His great object was to preserve 
the balance of power between the rival houses of France and 
Austria ; and to this we should refer the mutable politics of the 
English cabinet, which first deserted Francis to support the cause 
of Charles, and when Charles had obtained the ascendency, aban- 
doned him to repair the broken fortunes of Francis. The conse- 
quence was, that as long as Wolsey presided in the council, the 
minister was feared and courted by princes and pontiffs, and the 
king held the distinguished station of arbiter of Europe. 

When Charles V. of Spain was elected emperor of Germany, 
Francis and Henry (who had also been candidates for the impe- 
Charies v. visits ria ^ tnrone ) became closer allies. Francis invited 
England. Henry to France ; and the English monarch, with 

a numerous and splendid retinue, leaving Greenwich, proceeded 
by slow stages to Canterbury, where, to the surprise of all who 
had not been admitted into the secret, advice was received that 
Charles, with a squadron of Spanish ships, had cast anchor in the 
harbor of Hythe. This apparently accidental meeting was cele- 
brated at Canterbury with feasts and rejoicings; the young em- 
peror, by his flattery and attentions, rooted himself in the affec- 
tions of Henry, and by promises and presents secured the friend- 
ship of Wolsey ; and on the fourth day, when he sailed from 
Sandwich, the king, with his court, crossed the strait from Dover 
to Calais. The two kings met near the town of Ardres, in a field 
called "The Field of the Cloth of Gold," on account of the 
splendor of the preparations. As soon as the kings had reached 
their respective residences, the cardinal paid a visit to Francis, 
and remained with him two days. The result was an additional 



1520 A. D.] HENRY THE EIGHTH. 333 

treaty, the terms of which proved the extreme anxiety of that 
monarch to secure the friendship, or at least the forbearance of 
the English king. After these preliminaries, the monarchs rode 
from their several residences, alighted from their horses, em- 
braced each other, and walked arm-in-arm into a pavilion, which 
had been prepared for their reception. The next fortnight was 
consumed in feats of arms and in banquets. The queens of Eng- 
land and France, with their ladies and officers, beheld the com- 
batants from the galleries ; and the heralds daily registered the 
names, the arms, and the feats of the knights. On every occa- 
sion the two kings appeared with equal splendor, and acquitted 
themselves with equal applause ; their bravest antagonists deemed 
it no disgrace to yield to royal prowess ; and Henry and Francis, 
though they fought five battles each day, invariably overcame 
every opponent. Henry, on leaving Francis, paid a visit to 
Charles V. in Flanders. Every artifice was employed to discover 
the real object of this second meeting; and the French ambas- 
sador, La Roche, having obtained an audience of the two mo- 
narchs, read in their presence the tripartite league formerly con- 
cluded between them and Francis, and required Charles to ratify 
it with his signature as emperor. That prince, however, eluded 
the demand, and appointed Henry umpire in every subsequent 
difference which might arise between himself and the French 
monarch. 

In the interview at Ardres, not only the two kings, but also 
their attendants, had sought to surpass each other in the magnifi- 
cence of their dress and the display of their riches. Death of the 

r\t> i T-! i im- • *ii duke of Buckiug- 

Oi the .trench nobility, it was said that many ham. 
carried their whole estates on their backs; among the English 
the duke of Buckingham ventured to express his marked disap- 
probation of a visit which had led to so much useless expense. 
The duke was descended from Edward III., and it had been fore- 
told to him that one of his family would be king. He was accused 
of treason, and put to death. 

Ever since Henry had failed in his attempt to procure the im- 
perial dignity, he had turned his thoughts and ambition toward 
the crown of France. This subject had been secretly discussed 
by Henry and Charles, and had led to the proposal of a stricter 
union between the crowns by the marriage of the emperor with 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1521. 



the daughter of Henry. The flames of war were unexpectedly 
rekindled in 1521 between Francis and Charles, in Spain, Italy, 
and the Netherlands. The contending parties immediately ap- 
pealed to Henry, and each claimed his aid in virtue of treaty. 
He exhorted each monarch to conclude a peace, and then pro- 
posed, that before he should make his election between them, 
they should appoint commissioners to plead before him or his 
deputy. Charles instantly signified his assent. Francis wavered, 
but, at length, condescended to accept the proffered mediation. 

Henry conferred the high dignity of arbitrator on Wolsey, who 
proceeded to Calais in great state, as the representative of his 
sovereign. The mediation failed, and Wolsey declared that 
Francis had been the aggressor in the war, and that Henry was 
bound by treaty to aid his imperial ally. 

The deliverance of Milan from the yoke of France, which took 
place about this time, diffused the most extravagant joy through- 
woisey again as- out the Italian states. The pontiff, Leo X., ordered 
throne. the event to be celebrated with thanksgivings and 

games, hastened to Rome that he might enjoy the triumph of 
his policy and arms, and entered his capital in high spirits, and 
apparently in perfect health ; yet a sudden indisposition prevented 
him from attending a consistory, which he had summoned ; and 
in a few days it was known that he was dead. The news travelled 
with expedition to England, and Wolsey immediately extended 
his views to the papal throne, but without success, as Cardinal 
Adrian, a Belgian, was elected pope. 

Francis, having fruitlessly attempted to recover the friendship 
of the king of England, at length laid an embargo on the English 

War between shipping in his ports, and seized all the property 

France and Eng- \. \ ° r ' T .. r * J 

land. ot the English merchants. In retaliation, Henry 

confined the French ambassador to his house, ordered all French- 
men in London to be taken into custody, and at length sent a defi- 
ance to Francis. The emperor, Charles V., landed at Dover, and 
was accompanied by the king through Canterbury, London, and 
Winchester, to Southampton. It was agreed between them that 
each power should make war on Francis with forty thousand men. 
At Southampton, the emperor took leave of the king, and em- 
barked on board his fleet. The money necessary for the support 
of the army destined to invade France was yet to be raised ; and 



1522 A. D.] HENRY THE EIGHTH. 335 



to supply the deficiency, required all the art of Wolsey aided by 
the despotic authority of the king. 

At length, the earl of Surrey, who had been named to the com- 
mand, mustered his army under the walls of Calais. He marched 
toward Amiens, carefully avoiding the fortified towns, and devot- 
ing to the flames every house and village which fell in his way ; 
while the French, who had been forbidden to risk an engagement, 
hovered in small bodies round the invaders. But the season 
proved the most formidable enemy. Cold and rain introduced a 
dysentery into the camp, and the earl led back his followers to 
Calais. 

In the early part of the summer, Francis, that he might divert 
the attention of the king, sought to raise up enemies to Henry 
both in Ireland and Scotland. In Ireland, he ad- France makes a 
dressed himself to the chief of the house of Des- mond. 
mond, and the earl of that name, seduced by the hopes which 
were held out to him, signed a treaty by which, in return for an 
annual pension, he engaged to join the French army as soon as it 
should land in Ireland. But Francis forgot his engagement to 
Desmond; the army was never sent, the pension never paid; and 
the misguided earl had full leisure to lament the imprudence with 
which he had listened to the suggestions and promises of his de- 
ceitful ally. In Scotland, Francis found a more able and equally 
willing associate in the duke of Albany, who, having received 
supplies and instructions from Francis, assembled the Scottish 
army at Annan. Thence he marched at the head, it is said, of 
eighty thousand men, while the English general had no force to 
oppose to him. But the storm was dispersed by Lord Dacre, 
warden of the western marches, who assumed a tone of bold de- 
fiance, and pretended that a numerous army was hastening to his 
aid. Albany engaged to disband his army; Dacre to forbid the 
advance of the English forces, which, instead of being on their 
march, were not in reality assembled. 

The minister's chief embarrassment at this period arose from 
the exhausted state of the treasury. Henry, following the ex- 
ample of his father, had governed during eight The ministei , 3 
years without the aid of the great council of the embarrassment, 
nation ; but his necessities now compelled him to summon a par- 
liament to meet at the Black Friars ; and Sir Thomas More, a 



336 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D 1522. 



member of the council, was, by the influence of the court, chosen 
speaker of the commons. After some days the cardinal carried 
to that house a royal message, showing from the conduct of 
Francis that the war was just and necessary, and proposed to 
raise money by a property-tax of twenty per cent. After some 
hesitation the commons agreed to a tax on every kind of property, 
of five per cent, for two years, to be continued during the third 
year on fees, pensions, and rents of land, and during the fourth 
year on movables only. The clergy were obliged to pay a higher 
rate of taxation. 

The duke of Albany, after his inglorious negotiation with Lord 
Dacre, had left Scotland ; but the principal lords remained con- 
Henry reconciled stant m tne * r attachment to France, and impa- 
with his sister. tiently expected his return with supplies of men 
and money. Henry sought a reconciliation with his sister, 
Queen Margaret, that he might set her up in opposition to Al- 
bany; and gave the chief command in the north to the earl of 
Surrey, son to the victor of Flodden Field, with instructions to 
purchase the services of the Scottish lords with money, and to 
invade and lay waste the Scottish borders. Margaret gladly ac- 
cepted the overture, and consented to conduct her son, now in his 
twelfth year, to Edinburgh, and to announce by proclamation that 
he had assumed the government, provided the English general 
would march a strong force to her support. Surrey repeatedly 
entered the marches, spread around the devastation of war, and 
at last reduced to ashes the large town of Jedburgh. But on 
that very day Albany landed at Dumbarton with two thousand 
soldiers, and a great quantity of stores and ammunition. The 
projects of Margaret were instantly crushed; at the call of the 
parliament the whole nation rose in arms ; and Albany saw above 
sixty thousand men arrayed round his standard. Surrey, how- 
ever, received reinforcements, and Albany, after an ineffectual 
attempt to retain the regency, sailed for France, never more to set 
foot in Scotland. His departure enabled Margaret to resume the 
ascendency, and proclaim her son ; but her imperious temper 
alienated her friends; her application to Francis and Albany was 
received with indifference ; and her husband, the earl of Angus, 
under the protection of Henry, took upon himself the office of 



1517 A. D.] HENRY THE EIGHTH. 337 

regent. The borders of both countries enjoyed at this period a 
cessation from hostilities during eighteen years.* 

It is well known that the primitive church visited with pecu- 
liar severity the more flagrant violations of the divine law; and 
that such punishments were occasionally mitigated 
by the " indulgence" of the bishops, who, in favor 
of particular penitents, were accustomed to abridge the austerities 
enjoined by the canons, or to commute them for works of charity 
and exercises of piety. In process of time abuses grew out of 
the practice. The money was frecmently diverted from its origi- 
nal destination ; and as the office of collecting the contributions 
was committed to inferior agents called questors, who received a 
per-centage on the amount, they often exaggerated the advantages 
of the indulgence, and imposed on the people. To prevent such 
abuses, severe constitutions had been enacted by several popes; 
but these laws were either not enforced, or had fallen into 
disuse. 

Among the different projects which occupied the restless mind 
of Julius II., was that of erecting a temple worthy of the capital 
of the Christian world, of enormous dimensions The pr0 j ects of 
and unrivalled magnificence. To raise money for Julius n - 
this purpose, he had published an indulgence in Poland and 
France; which his successor, Leo X., had with the same view 
extended to the northern provinces of Germany. The papal 
commission was directed to Albert, elector of Mentz, and arch- 
bishop of Magdeburg; and that prelate employed as his delegate 
Tetzel, a Dominican friar, whose brethren rapidly spread them- 
selves over Saxony. 

The origin of the revolution which followed may, with proba- 
bility, be attributed to the counsels of Staupitz, vicar of the friars 
of St. Augustine. It has been generally supposed Luther attacks 

,, . ° . . ..„"'.. the doctrine of in- 

tnat he was actuated by a spirit of opposition to diligence. 

the Dominicans. For his ostensible agent he selected a young 



* We pass over, for want of space, Dr. Lingard's interesting detail of the 
continental wars, in which Henry was for some years engaged, and proceed to 
examine the history of the religious revolution which subverted the established 
creed, and abolished the papal authority in several of the states of Europe. 
An account of the causes which led to its commencement and accelerated its 
progress will be appropriate in this place. 

29 



538 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1517. 



friar of his own order, named Martin Luther. When Frederic, 
elector of Saxony, founded the university of Wittemberg, Luther 
had obtained a professorship at the recommendation of Staupitz, 
and soon attracted notice by the peculiar boldness of his writings. 
He was now in his thirty-fifth year, vain of his talents for dispu- 
tation, and fearless of opposition ; and eagerly undertook the task 
assigned to him by the zeal or the envy of his superior. His first 
essay was the composition of ninety-five short theses on the nature 
of indulgences. He affixed his theses to the great door of the 
church of Wittemberg ; then maintained them publicly from the 
pulpit, and afterward dispersed them in printed copies through 
the chief cities of Germany. 

The Dominican friars were alarmed and exasperated at the op- 
position of Luther. They refuted his theses with warmth, and 
were answered by him with greater warmth. The controversy 
soon attracted public notice throughout Germany and the neigh- 
boring countries. At Heidelberg Luther maintained, both in 
word and writing, that by the fall of Adam man has been de- 
prived of the use of free will ; that faith alone is sufficient for 
salvation ; and that the best of our actions are of their own nature 
grievous offences. The auditor of the papal court, the bishop of 
Ascoli, had already cited him to appear at Rome within sixty 
days; but when he heard of Luther's conduct at Heidelberg, 
he pronounced him a heretic, without waiting for the expiration 
of that term. 

About this time Leo published a bull declaratory of the doctrine 
of the Roman church respecting indulgences, the original subject 
Leo publishes a °f tne controversy. Though it does not mention 
bul! - Luther by name, it is evidently pointed against his 

assertions. It teaches that the pope, as successor of St. Peter, 
and the vicar of Christ upon earth, possesses the power of grant- 
ing, for reasonable causes, certain indulgences in favor of such of 
the faithful as are in a state of grace, whether they be alive or 
dead, for the remission of the temporal punishment due on ac- 
count of actual sin. This bull probed the sincerity of Luther to 
the quick. He had promised to accept the decision of the pontiff, 
whether it approved or condemned his doctrine. That prelate 
bad now spoken, and the decision was unfavorable ; but the pro- 
fessor, forgetful of his former protestations, instead of submit- 



1521 A. D.] HENRY THE EIGHTH. 339 

ting, appealed by a formal instrument from the pope to a general 
council. 

There existed in Germany a very prevalent feeling of disaffec- 
tion to the see of Rome. The violent contests between the popes 
and the emperors in former times had left a germ The state of Ger- 
of discontent, which required but little aid to many at that time, 
shoot into open hostility. The recent invention of printing, by 
multiplying the copies of books and the number of readers, had 
given a new and extraordinary impulse to the powers and passions 
of men, who began to conceive that their ancestors had been kept 
not only in intellectual but also in civil thraldom. All Germany 
was in a ferment ; and Luther converted the general feeling to his 
own purpose with admirable address. 

The politicians of Rome blamed the tardiness and irresolution 
of Leo himself, who for two years had suffered the innovator to 
brave the papal authority, without taking any decisive step to 
punish his presumption. The pope, whether he listened to the 
timidity of his temper, or thought that the storm might be allayed 
by gentleness, commissioned Miltitz, a Saxon nobleman, to bring 
Luther back to his duty by persuasion and promises. Miltitz 
exhorted and advised, but without success. Leo The pr0C eeciings 
soon published a bull in which he stigmatized Lu- of Leo - 
ther's propositions as false, scandalous, and heretical; allowed him 
sixty days to retract his errors; and pronounced him excommuni- 
cated if he continued obstinate after the expiration of that term. 
But success and impunity had taught Luther to deride the au- 
thority before which he had formerly trembled. He appealed to 
the decision of a general council ; and having called an assembly 
of the inhabitants of Wittemberg, led them to a funeral pile, 
erected without the walls, and with much solemnity cast into the 
flames the books of the canon law, and the bull of Pope Leo 
against himself. 

War was now openly declared, and each party labored to se- 
cure the friendship of the new emperor. The elector Frederic, 
to whom that prince lay under the greatest obliga- Dewee against 
tions, exerted all his influence in favor of his Luther. 
friend ; and Luther himself, to alienate the inexperienced mind 
of Charles from the see of Rome, addressed to him an historical 
treatise, in which he artfully exaggerated the many injuries 



340 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1521. 



which the different pontiffs had inflicted on the empire, and ex- 
horted him to vindicate the honor of the imperial crown. But 
this course availed him not, for a decree was soon published 
against him, ordering the seizure of his person, forbidding any 
prince to harbor or protect him, and prohibiting the publication 
of writings on doctrinal matters without the previous approbation 
of the ordinary. Luther, however, had already provided for his 
own security. He took refuge in a solitary castle situate at a 
distance in the mountains. The place of his concealment was 
kept a profound secret both from his friends and his enemies ; 
but he continued to animate the former by his writings ; while 
the latter found themselves repeatedly assailed by their indefati- 
gable but invisible adversary. 

Detailed accounts of all these transactions had been carefully 
transmitted to England by the royal agents. Wolsey, by his 

Henry and Wol- office of legate, Was bound tO Oppose the new doc- 
doctrines, trines ; and Henry, who had applied to the school 
divinity, attributed their diffusion in Germany to the supine 
ignorance of the native princes. By a letter to Charles V. he 
had already evinced his hostility to doctrinal innovation ; but it 
was deemed prudent to abstain from any public declaration till 
the future decision of the diet could be conjectured with some 
degree of certainty. Then the legate, attended by the other pre- 
lates and the papal and imperial ambassadors, proceeded to St. 
Paul's; the bishop of Rochester preached from the cross; and 
the works of Luther, condemned by the pontiff, were burned in 
presence of the multitude. Henry himself was anxious to enter 
the lists against the German; nor did Wolsey discourage the 
attempt, under the idea that pride no less than conviction would 
afterward bind the royal polemic to the support of the ancient 
creed. That the treatise in defence of the seven sacraments, 
which the king published, was his own composition, is forcibly 
asserted by himself; that it was planned, revised, and improved 
by the superior judgment of the cardinal and the bishop of Ro- 
chester, was the opinion of the public. The dean of Windsor 
carried the royal production to Rome, and in a full consistory 
submitted it to the inspection and approbation of the pontiff. 
Clement accepted the present with many expressions of admira- 
tion and gratitude, and conferred on the English monarch the 



1521 A. D.] HENRY THE EIGHTH. 341 



title of " Defender of the Faith." Luther wrote Henry is styled 
an answer to Henry, but the intemperance of his Faith!" 
declamation scandalized his friends, while it gave joy to his ene- 
mies. To the king, he allotted no other praise than that of 
writing in elegant language ; in all other respects, he was " a fool 
and an ass, a blasphemer and a liar." Henry complained to Lu- 
ther's patron, the elector; the German princes considered the 
work as an insult to crowned heads; and at the earnest entreaty 
of Christian, king of Denmark, Luther condescended to write an 
apology ; but his " apology" was severe satire, and not likely to 
appease the mind of Henry, who published an answer, in which 
he openly avows himself to be the author of the tract printed 
with his name, and expresses his esteem for "Wolscy, " whom he 
always loved, but whom he shall now love much more, since he 
has been honored with the abuse of one who never spared exalted 
worth either in the living or the dead." Luther now announced 
his regret that he had descended to the meanness of making an 
apology ; and condemned his own folly in supposing that virtue 
could exist in a court, or that Christ might be found in a place 
where Satan reigned. Luther, returning to Wittemberg, pub- 
lished his German translation of the Scriptures. It was prepos- 
terous to imagine that, from the perusal of the sacred volume, 
the common people could be enabled to decide those questions 
which divided the most learned; but the gift flattered their 
pride. Several new preachers arose, who said that they had as 
good a claim to infallibility as Luther ; they began to dispute 
many of his doctrines, and to reform the reformer himself. 
Zwinglius declared against him in Switzerland. Muncer, driven 
from Saxony, erected his hostile standard at Mulhausen in Thu- 
ringia. The peasants, allured by his doctrines, were soon in 
arms, and the princes of the empire began to tremble for their 
political existence. Luther was overwhelmed with reproaches; 
the evil, it was said, had sprung from the tendency of his doc- 
trines ; and, to justify himself, he declared that Muncer was in- 
spired and aided by the devil, and that the only remedy was to 
extirpate with fire and sword both the teacher and his disciples. 
After many a bloody field in different parts of the empire, the 
Catholics and Lutherans, by their united efforts, suppressed the 
insurrection. But the moment the common enemy was removed, 

29* 



542 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1525. 



their mutual distrust revived ; the Catholic princes requested the 
presence of the emperor to protect them from the machinations 
of their enemies ; and the Protestant princes concluded, at Torgau, 
a league for their common defence. 

In 1525, Henry fell in love with Anne Boleyn, one of the 
queen's maids of honor, and, in order that he might marry her, 

nenry falls in he now, to obtain a divorce, affected to fear that he 

love with Anne ... . „. • i i ■.. ,. i • 

Boleyn. was living in a state ot mcest with the relict of his 

brother. The royal wish was no sooner communicated to Wolsey, 
than he offered his aid, and ventured to promise complete success. 
His views, however, were very different from those of his sove- 
reign. Unapprized of Henry's intentions in favor of Anne, he 
looked forward to the political consequences of the divorce ; and 
had already selected, for the successor of Catherine, Ilenee, the 
daughter of Louis XII. of France. Henry mentioned his doubts 
respecting the validity of his marriage to several canonists and 
divines ; most of whom, from a passage in Leviticus, contended 
that no dispensation could have authorized a marriage with the 
widow of a brother. Wolsey soon proceeded to the continent, 
that he might settle in person with Francis the promised marriage 
of the princess Mary. That monarch still insisted on their 
union ; and the most that Wolsey could obtain was, that the 
marriage should take place either with the king or his second 
son, the duke of Orleans. Henry would not consent to the first 
part of this alternative; and therefore imposed on his minister 
the task of persuading Francis to be satisfied with the second, or 
to break off the intended marriage altogether. Wolsey, though 
not pleased at the commission, made up his mind to fulfil with 
apparent cheerfulness the pleasure of his sovereign, and proceeded 
to France. 

Hitherto the king had concealed his thoughts respecting a 
divorce from the knowledge of the queen ; but Catherine's eyes 
had witnessed his partiality for her maid, and her jealousy at last 
discovered the whole intrigue. In a fit of passion she reproached 
him to his face with the baseness of his conduct. Henry, how- 
ever, appeased her by appealing to her piety, and protesting that 
his only object was to search out the truth, and to tranquillize 
his own conscience. 

When the cardinal returned to England from his French mis- 



1528 A. D.] 



HENRY THE EIGHTH. 



9 (<"> 

o4o 



sion, the king took an opportunity of communicating to him his 
fixed determination to marry Anne Boleyn. The iienry dcter- 
minister received the intelligence with grief and Anne Boleyn. a " 
dismay. On his knees he besought the king to recede from a 
project which would cover him with disgrace; but, aware of the 
royal temper, he soon desisted from his opposition, and became a 
convert to the measure which he could not prevent. With 
the nation at large the king's course was unpopular. The fate 
of a princess who for so many years had been acknowledged as 
queen, and who had displayed in that situation every virtue which 
could grace a throne, was calculated to awaken in her favor the 
feelings of the public. A commission was obtained from the 
pope authorizing Wolsey, with the aid of any of the other Eng- 
lish prelates, to inquire summarily, and without judicial forms, 
into the validity of the dispensation which had been granted by 
Julius, and of the marriage between Henry and Catherine; to 
pronounce, in defiance of exception or appeal, the dispensation 
sufficient or surreptitious, the marriage valid or invalid, according 
to the conviction of his conscience ; and to divorce the parties, 
if it were invalid, but at the same time to legitimate their issue, 
if such legitimation were desired. 

Wolsey now began to hesitate; and took the opportunity of 
declaring to the king at one of the consultations, that though he 
was bound in gratitude, and was ready to spend Cokey's deter- 
bis goods, blood, and life in his service, yet he m in »ti°»- 
was under greater obligations to God, at whose tribunal he would 
have to render an account of his actions, and therefore was deter- 
mined to show the king no more favor than justice required; and 
if he found the dispensation sufficient in law, so to pronounce it, 
whatever might be the consequence. Henry at the moment sup- 
pressed his feelings ; but in a short time gave way to his anger in 
language the most opprobrious and alarming. Wolsey saw the 
danger which threatened him. Anne Boleyn was not his friend. 
Her relatives and advisers were his rivals and enemies ; and he 
knew that they only waited for the expected marriage to effect his 
downfall with the aid of her influence over the mind of the king. 

In 1528 a plague broke out, and while it continued, the har- 
mony in which the king lived with his wife, and the religious 
impression which the danger had left on his mind, excited a sus- 



844 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1529. 



The progress of pi c i° n that he would abandon his project of a di- 
the divorce. vorce ) but the contagion bad no sooner ceased than 

be resumed bis former course of conduct. Carnpeggio, tbe legate 
who came from E.ome on tbe subject of the divorce, after be bad 
been introduced to Henry, waited on tbe queen, first in private, 
and then in the company of Wolsey and four other prelates. He 
exhorted her in the name of the pontiff to enter a convent, and 
then explained to her the objections against the validity of her 
marriage. Catherine replied with modesty and firmness ; that it 
was not for herself that she was concerned, but for her daughter, 
whose interests were more dear to her than her own. She there- 
fore demanded as a right the aid of counsel of her own choice. 
This request was partially granted ; and, in addition to certain 
English prelates and canonists, she was permitted to choose two 
foreign advocates. 

The court, for the trial of the question, met after much delay 
in the parliament chamber at tbe Blackfriars, and summoned tbe 
king and queen to appear on the eighteenth of June, 1529. The 
latter obeyed, but protested against tbe judges, and appealed to 
the pope. At the next session Henry sat in state on the right 
of the cardinals, and answered in due form to his name. Cathe- 
rine was on their left ; and, as soon as she was called, rising from 
her chair, renewed her protest. On the refusal of the cardinals 
to admit her appeal, she rose a second time, crossed before them, 
and, accompanied by her maids, threw herself at the king's feet. 
" Sir," said she, " I beseech you to pity me, a woman and a 
stranger, without an assured friend, and without an indifferent 
counsellor. I take God to witness, that I have always been to 
you a true and loyal wife. If there be any offence which can be 
alleged against me, I consent to depart with infamy ; if not, then 
I pray you do me justice." She immediately rose, made a low 
obeisance, and retired. Henry, observing the impression which 
her address bad made on the audience, replied that she had 
always been a dutiful wife ; that his present suit did not proceed 
from any dislike to her, but from the tenderness of his own con- 
science. 

Notwithstanding the queen's appeal, tbe cause proceeded, and 
on her refusal to appear in person or by her attorney, she was 
pronounced contumacious. Several sittings were held, but the 



1529 A. D.] HENRY THE EIGHTH. B15 



evidence and the arguments were all on the same side. Wolsey 
urged for a speedy decision; but Campeggio, unwilling to pro- 
nounce against his conscience, and afraid to irritate the king, 
solicited the pope by letter, to call the cause before himself. To 
add to their common perplexity, despatches had arrived from the 
agents at Rome, stating that the cpieen's appeal had been re- 
ceived ; and that Clement would in a few days revoke the com- 
mission, and reserve the cognizance of the cause to himself. 

The legates had prolonged the trial by repeated adjournments. 
On the 23d of July, 1529, they held their last session ; the king 
attended in a neighboring room, from which he could see and 
hear the proceedings ; and his counsel in lofty terms called for 
the judgment of the court. But Campeggio re- The determina . 
plied, that judgment must be deferred till the tion of Campeggio 
whole of the proceedings had been laid before the pontiff, and 
that no consideration should divert him from his duty. He was 
too old, and weak, and sickly to seek the favor, or fear the resent- 
ment of any man. The defendant had challenged him and his 
colleague as judges, because they were the subjects of her oppo- 
nent. To avoid error, they had therefore determined to consult 
Rome, and for that purpose he adjourned the court to the com- 
mencement of the next term, in the beginning of October. 

Henry seemed to bear the disappointment with a composure 
of mind which was unusual to him. But he had not been unpre- 
pared for the event. By the advice of Wolsey he resolved to con- 
ceal his real feelings, to procure the opinions of learned men in 
his favor, to effect the divorce by ecclesiastical authority within 
the realm, and then to confirm it by act of parliament. 

Wolsey 's good fortune now began to abandon him. At this 
moment, while Henry was still smarting under his recent disap- 
pointment, an instrument arrived from Rome, for- The dla „ race of 
bidding him to pursue his cause before the le- Wolse y- 
gates, and citing him to appear by attorney in the papal court 
under a heavy penalty. The whole process was one of mere 
form ; but it revived the irritation of the king ; he deemed it a 
personal insult, and insisted that Wolsey should devise some ex- 
pedient to prevent it from being served on him, and from being 
made known to his subjects. This, after a tedious negotiation, 
was effected with the consent of the queen and her counsel. But 



J46 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1529, 



it was in vain that the cardinal labored to recover the royal favor. 
The proofs of his disgrace became daily more manifest. He was 
not invited to court ; on matters of state his opinion was seldom 
asked, and then only by special messengers; even letters address- 
ed to him were intercepted, opened, and perused by Henry. Still, 
amid the misgivings of his own breast and the sinister predic- 
tions of his friends, he cherished the hope that some lucky 
chance might replace him on his former pre-eminence, and impru- 
dently trusted to the hollow professions of men, who, though 
they had served him faithfully in prosperity, were ready to be- 
tray his confidence in his declining fortune. With some difficulty 
he obtained an interview with Henry, in company with Campcg- 
gio, when that prelate took leave of the king. The Italian was 
received by the officers of the court with the attention due to his 
rank ; the fallen minister found to his surprise that, though an 
apartment had been ordered for his companion, none was provided 
for himself. He was introduced into the presence. Every tongue 
foretold his disgrace — every eye watched his reception. To the 
general surprise, when he knelt, the king graciously raised him 
up with both hands, led him aside in a friendly manner, and con- 
versed with him familiarly for a considerable time. The cardinal 
dined with the ministers; Henry with the lady Anne in her 
chamber; but after dinner he sent for Wolsey again, conducted 
him by the hand into his closet, and kept him in private con- 
ference till it was dark. At his departure — for he slept at a 
gentleman's house in the neighborhood — he received a command 
to return on the following morning. Wolsey's enemies now 
trembled for their own safety ; they were relieved from their ap- 
prehensions by the ascendency of Anne Boleyn, who extorted 
from her lover a promise that he would never more speak to the 
cardinal. When Wolsey returned in the morning the king was 
already on horseback, and having sent a message to him to attend 
the council and then depart with Campoggio, rode out in the com- 
pany of the lady Anne. After that day, he and Wolsey never 
met each other. Hales, the attorney-general, soon afterward 
filed two bills against him in the King's Bench, charging him 
with having, as legate, transgressed the statute of Premunire.* 



1530 A. D.] HENRY THE EIGHTH. 347 



This stroke, though it was not unexpected, plunged Wolsey into 
despair. He knew the stern and irritable temper of his prosecu- 
tor; to have maintained his innocence would have been to exclude 
the hope of forgiveness. He therefore submitted without a mur- 
mur to every demand; resigned the great seal; transferred to the 
king the whole of his personal estate; ordered his attorney to 
plead guilty to the indictment, and threw himself without reserve 
on the royal mercy. His enemies labored doubly to keep alive 
the royal displeasure against him. They represented him as an 
ungrateful favorite, who had sought nothing but his own interest 
and gratification. Still the king's partiality for his The king shows' 
former favorite seemed to be proof against all the wolsey. 
representations of the council. He continued to send to the car- 
dinal from time to time consoling messages and tokens of affec- 
tion, though it was generally by stealth, and sometimes during 
the night. When the court pronounced judgment against him, 
he took him under the royal protection; and when articles of im- 
peachment had been introduced into the house of lords, and 
passed from it to the house of commons, he procured them to be 
thrown out by the agency of Cromwell, who from the service 
of the cardinal had risen to that of the king. Wolsey however 
sank in health and spirits. The anguish of his mind rapidly con- 
sumed the vigor of his constitution. About Christmas, 1529, he 
fell into a fever, which obstinately defied the powers of medicine. 
When Henry heard of his danger, he exclaimed, " God forbid 
that he should die. I would not lose him for twenty thousand 
pounds." He immediately ordered three physicians to hasten to 
Esher, where Wolsey lived, and repeatedly assured the cardinal 
of his unabated attachment. 

As the agitation of Wolsey's mind subsided, the health of his 
body was restored ; but his enemies has prepared for him a new 
conflict, and required of him additional sacrifices. It was ulti- 
mately agreed that Wolsey should retain the administration, tem- 
poral as well as spiritual, of the archiepiscopal see of York, but, 
in consideration of a general pardon, make over to the crown all 
his other ecclesiastical revenues. 

On the 4th of November, 1530, Wolsey was unexpectedly ar- 
rested on a charge of high treason. He betrayed 
no symptoms of guilt; the king had not, he main- high treason.*" 



348 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [1530 A. D- 

tained, a more loyal subject than himself; there lived not on 
earth the man who could look him in the face and charge him 
with untruth ; nor did he seek any other favor than to be con- 
fronted with his accusers. 

His health (he suffered much from dropsy) would not allow him 
to travel with expedition ; and at Sheffield Park, a seat of the 
ins fflness and eav ^ °^ Shrewsbury, he was seized with a dysentery 
death. which confined him a fortnight. As soon as he 

was able to mount his mule he resumed his journey ; but feeling 
his strength rapidly decline, he said to the abbot of Leicester, as 
he entered the gate of the monastery, " Father abbot, I am come 
to lay my bones among you." He was immediately carried to his 
bed ; and the second day, seeing Kyngston, the lieutenant of the 
Tower, in his chamber, he addressed him in these well-known 
words : " Master Kyngston, I pray you have me commended to 
his majesty; had I but served God as diligently as I have served 
him, he would not have given me over in my gray hairs. But 
this is my just reward for my pains and study, not regarding my 
service to God, but only my duty to my prince." Having received 
the last consolations of religion, he expired the next morning, in 
the sixtieth year of his age. The best eulogy on his character is 
to be found in the contrast between the conduct of Henry before 
and after the cardinal's fall. As long as Wolsey continued in fa- 
vor, the royal passions were confined within certain bounds ; the 
moment his influence was extinguished they burst through every 
restraint, and by their caprice and violence alarmed his subjects 
and astonished the other nations of Europe. 

To appoint a successor to Wolsey, in the chancery, was an ob- 
ject of great importance ; and the office was at length given to 
sir Thomas Moro Sir Thomas More, the treasurer of the household, 
ceed Wolsey. " and chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. It may 
justly excite surprise that More should accept this dangerous 
office. With a delicate conscience and a strong sense of duty, he 
was not a fit associate for less timorous colleagues. As a scholar, 
he was celebrated in every part of Europe, and as a lawyer he 
had long practised with applause and success. From the office of 
under-sheriff or common sergeant, Henry had called him to court, 
had employed him in different embassies, and had rewarded him 
with the lucrative preferments which have already been men- 



1531 A. D.] HENRY THE EIGHTH. 349 



tioned. The merit of More was universally acknowledged, and 
even Wolsey declared that he knew no one more worthy to be his 
successor. -£ 

About this time Thomas Cromwell appears in history. His 
father was a fuller in the neighborhood of the capital. The son 
in his early youth served as a trooper in the wars The rise of Tho 
of Italy ; from the army he passed to the service mas Cromwell. 
of a Venetian merchant ; and after some time, returning to Eng- 
land, exchanged the counter for the study of the law. Wolsey 
had employed him to dissolve the monasteries which had been 
granted for the establishment of his colleges, a trust which he 
discharged to the satisfaction of his patron, at the same time that 
he enriched himself. His principles, however, if we may believe 
his own assertions, were of the most flagitious description. When 
Wolsey fell he followed him for a time ; but despairing of the 
fortune of the fallen favorite, hastened to court, purchased with 
presents the protection of the ministers, and was confirmed in 
that office under the king, which he had before held under the 
cardinal. 

When Henry, despairing of obtaining the pope's consent to 
the divorce, declared that he would abandon the idea, Cromwell 
urged him to imitate the princes of Germany, who Henry advised to 
had thrown off the yoke of Rome; and, with the head of the church, 
authority of parliament, to declare himself the head of the church 
within his own realm. Henry listened with surprise and pleasure 
to a discourse which flattered not only his passion for Anne Bo- 
leyn, but his thirst of wealth and greediness of power. He thanked 
Cromwell, and ordered him to be sworn of his privy council. 
Soon afterward, a deputation was sent to Catherine with an order 
for her to leave the palace at Windsor. " Go where I may," she 
answered, "I shall still be the king's lawful wife." She repaired 
to Ampthill • where, if she was no longer treated as queen, she 
no longer witnessed the ascendency of her rival. 

The bishoprics of York and Winchester, two of the most wealthy 
preferments in the English church, had remained vacant since the 
death of Wolsey, through the desire of Henry to bestow one of 
them on his kinsman, Reginald Pole. He was told that the king 
had marked him out for the first dignities in the English church, 
but previously expected from him a faithful explanation of his 

30 



350 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A.D. 1533. 



opinion concerning tbe divorce. Pole frankly owned that he was 
against it, but, by the advice of the duke, requested the respite of 
a month, that he might have leisure to study the question. He 
condemned the divorce, and the vacant sees were given to others. 
Five years had now rolled away since Henry first solicited a 
divorce, and still he appeared to have made but little progress to- 

iienry is private- wai 'd tne attainment of his object. Anne Boleyn, 
iy married toAnne. [ n 1532, proved to be in a condition to promise 
him an heir ; and the necessity of placing beyond cavil the legiti- 
macy of the child induced him to violate a pledge which he had 
solemnly given to the king of France, that he would not marry 
Anne without the consent of the church, and he was privately 
married to her in January, 1533 j but the marriage was not pub- 
licly avowed till the following Easter. 

The next step was to obtain some ecclesiastical decision in favor 
of the divorce. "With this view, Thomas Cranmer, who was in 

Cranmer made Henry's interest, was appointed archbishop of 
archbishop of York. York. He held a court to which Catherine was 
summoned, but she did not appear, and Cranmer, in May, 1533, 
pronounced his judgment, that the marriage between her and 
Henry was null and invalid, and without force from the very be- 
ginning. Cranmer held another court at Lambeth, and officially 
declared that Henry and Anne were and had been joined in lawful 
matrimon} r . These proceedings were preparatory to the coronation 
of the new queen, which was performed with unusual magnifi- 
cence, attended by all the nobility of England, and celebrated 
with great splendor. In the eighth month after the performance 
of the nuptial ceremony, Anne bore the king a child ; but that 
child, to his inexpressible disappointment, was a female, the 
princess Elizabeth, who afterward ascended the throne. 

As soon as Cranmer had pronounced judgment, Catherine re- 
ceived a command from the king to be content with the style of 

Proceedings iu dowager princess of Wales ; and those among her 
favor of Catherine, dependants who gave her the title of queen, were 
ordered to be irrevocably dismissed from her service. In foreign 
nations her lot became the object of universal commiseration; even 
in England the general feeling was in her favor. At Rome, Cle- 
ment was daily importuned by Charles V. and Ferdinand to do 
justice to their aunt, and he annulled the sentence given by Cran- 



1534 A. D.] HENRY THE EIGHTH. 351 



rner, as the cause was at the very time pending before himself, 
and excommunicated Henry and Anne, unless they should separate 
before the end of September, or show why they claimed to be con- 
sidered as husband and wife. The college of cardinals subse- 
quently pronounced a definitive sentence, declaring the proceedings 
against Catherine unjust, and ordering the king to take her back 
as his legitimate wife. 

But, in reality, it mattered little to Henry whether Clement 
had pronounced for or against him. The die was already cast ; 
violent counsels began to prevail in the English violent proceed- 
cabinet ; and a resolution was taken to erect a se- inss in P arliam ent. 
parate and independent church within the realm. Act after act 
derogatory from the papal claims was debated and passed in par- 
liament; and the kingdom was severed by legislative authority 
from the communion of Rome, in 1534. Appeals to Rome were 
prohibited in all cases whatsoever ; and in lieu of the right thus 
abolished, suitors were allowed to appeal from the court of the 
archbishop to the king in chancery. It was enacted that bishops 
should no longer be presented to the pope for confirmation, nor 
sue out bulls in his court ; but that, on the vacancy of any cathe- 
dral church, the king should grant to the dean and chapter, or to 
the prior and monks, permission to elect the person whose name 
was mentioned in his letters missive. It was also enacted, that 
since the clergy had recognised the king for the supreme head of 
the Church of England, every kind of payment made to Rome, 
and every species of license, dispensation, and grant, usually ob- 
tained from Rome, should forthwith cease ; that hereafter all such 
graces and indulgences should be sought of the archbishop of 
Canterbury. 

By another act, the marriage between Henry and Catherine 
was pronounced unlawful and null; that between him and Anne 
Boleyn lawful and valid; the king's issue by the first marriage 
was of course excluded from the succession, and by the second 
was declared entitled to inherit the crown. 

The king had now accomplished his two great objects : he had 
bestowed on Anne the rights of a lawful wife, and had invested 
himself with the supremacy of the church. But the opposition 
which he had experienced strengthened his passions and steeled 
his heart against the common feelings of humanity; and each 



352 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1534. 



,-•1. ■,■ ■u r succeeding year of his reign was stained with the 

Fisher, bishop of ° J ° 

Kochester, and sir blood of many, often of noble and innocent, vic- 

Thonias More, op- . _. , . . , , 1 _.. . 

pose the king's su- tims. 1" isher, bishop or .Rochester, and feir I nomas 
pre acy. More, lately lord chancellor, were sacrificed to 

Henry's anger, in 1534. Fisher was far advanced in age. For 
many years the king had revered him as a parent, and was accus- 
tomed to boast that no prince in Europe possessed a prelate equal 
in virtue and learning to the bishop of Rochester. But his oppo- 
sition to the divorce gradually effaced the recollection of his merit 
and services. He was accused of misprision of treason, because, as 
it was said, he had declared his belief in the prophecy of a woman 
named Barton, who said that Henry would not survive the divorce 
many months. He was attainted with others, and compounded 
with the crown for his freedom and personalities in the sum of 
three hundred pounds. 

Sir Thomas More had ceased at this time to fill the office of 
chancellor. He opposed the divorce ; and as, in the execution of 
his office, he had found himself unavoidably engaged in matters 
which he could not reconcile with his conscience, he tendered his 
resignation, and avoiding all interference in politics, devoted his 
whole time to study and prayer. He looked upon Elizabeth Bar- 
ton as a pious and virtuous woman, deluded by a weak and excited 
imagination, and wrote to her to avoid public affairs. His letter 
and an interview afforded a presumption that he was a party in 
some conspiracy; his name was introduced into the bill of at- 
tainder, and with difficulty he caused it to be erased. 

Fisher and More were summoned before the council at Lambeth, 
and were asked whether they would consent to take the new oath 
of succession. They offered to take the oath of succession if some 
matters were expunged which they considered wrong in theology. 
Both were remanded that they might have more time for consi- 
deration. The oath was tendered to them a second time ; and 
both, on their refusal to take it, were committed to the Tower. 

The form of the oath, for the refusal of which More and Fisher 
were committed, had not then obtained the sanction of the legis- 
lature. But the two houses made light of the objection, and 
passed against them a bill of attainder for misprision of treason, 
involving the penalty of forfeiture and perpetual imprisonment. 
Under this sentence, More had no other resource for the support 



1534 A. D.] HENRY THE EIGHTH. 353 

of life than the charity of his friends. Fisher, Fate of Fisber 
though in his seventieth year, was reduced to a and More - 
state of destitution, in which he had not even sufficient cloth- 
ing. In the mean time, news arrived that the pontiff, Paul 
III., at a general promotion of cardinals, had appointed Fisher 
cardinal. Henry is reported to have on this occasion ex- 
claimed, " Paul may send him the hat, but I will take care that 
he have never a head to wear it on." He was soon afterward 
tried for denying the king's ecclesiastical supremacy, found guilty, 
and beheaded. 

More was soon afterward tried for the same cause of offence, 
and was of course convicted. He met his fate with constancy, 
even with cheerfulness, declaring that he died a faithful subject 
to the king, and a true Catholic before God. His head was fixed 
on London Bridge. A bull was at this time signed by the pope 
against Henry and his abettors, but on account of the state 
of Europe, it was not thought prudent to promulgate the 
instrument. 

Although Henry had now obtained the great object of his am- 
bition, the extent of his ecclesiastical pretensions remained sub- 
ject to doubt and discussion. Henry himself did Cromwell exalt- 
not clearly explain, perhaps knew not how to ex- edabove the clergy, 
plain, his own sentiments. If on the one hand he was willing to 
push his ecclesiastical prerogative to its utmost limits, on the other 
he was checked by the contrary tendency of those principles which 
he had published and maintained in his treatise against Luther. 
He established an additional office for the conduct of ecclesi- 
astical affairs. At its head was placed Cromwell, with the title 
of " royal vicegerent and vicar-general." It was with difficulty 
that the clergy suppressed their murmurs, when they saw at their 
head a man who had never taken orders, nor graduated in any 
university ; but their degradation, however, was not yet consum- 
mated. It was resolved to probe the sincerity of their submission, 
and to extort from them a practical acknowledgment that they 
derived no authority from Christ, but were merely the occasional 
delegates of the crown. With this object all the prelates were 
suspended from their functions, and then, by royal letters, reap- 
pointed as ministers of the king. 

Cromwell had long ago promised that the assumption of the 
30® 



354 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1535. 



supremacy would place the wealth of the clerical and monastic 
Dissolution of bodies at the mercy of the crown. Hence that 
the monasteries, minister, encouraged by the success of his former 
counsels, ventured to propose the dissolution of the monasteries ; 
and the motion was received with welcome by the king and by Arch- 
bishop Cranmer, whose approbation of the new doctrines taught 
him to seek the ruin of those establishments which proved the 
firmest supports of the ancient faith. A general visitation of the 
monasteries was therefore enjoined. The instructions which the 
visitors received breathed a spirit of piety and reformation, and 
were formed on the model of those formerly used in episcopal and 
legatine visitations ; so that to men not intrusted with the secret, 
the object of Henry appeared, not the abolition but the support 
and improvement of the monastic institute. A statement was 
compiled and laid before parliament, which, while it allotted the 
praise of regularity to the greater monasteries, described the less 
opulent as abandoned to sloth and immorality. A bill was intro- 
duced and hurried, though not without opposition, through the 
two houses, giving to the king and his heirs all monastic esta- 
blishments the clear yearly value of which did not exceed £200. 
By this act about three hundred and eighty communities were 
dissolved ; and an addition of £32,000 made to the yearly reve- 
nue of the crown, besides the present receipt of £100,000 in 
money, plate, and jewels. 

The parliament, by many successive prorogations, had continued 
six years ; it was now dissolved, and commissioners were named 
to execute the last act for the suppression of the smaller monas- 
teries. The superior of each suppressed house received a pension 
for life ; of the monks, those who had not reached the age of 
twenty-four were absolved from their vows, and sent adrift in the 
world without any provision ; the others were dispersed among 
the larger monasteries. The lot of the nuns was more distressing. 
Each received a single gown from the king, and was left to sup- 
port herself by her own industry, or to seek relief from the 
charity and commiseration of others. 

During three years, Catherine, with a small establishment, had 

resided on one of the royal manors. In most points she submitted 

without a murmur to the royal pleasure ; but no 

Queeu Catherine, promise, no intimidation could induce her to forego 



1536 A. D.] HENRY THE EIGHTH. 355 

the title of queen, or to acknowledge the invalidity of her mar- 
riage, or to accept the offer made to her by her nephew, of a safe 
and honorable asylum either in Spain or Flanders. It was not 
that she sought to gratify her pride, or to secure her personal 
interests ; but she still cherished a persuasion that her daughter 
Mary might at some future period be called to the throne. Her 
bodily constitution was gradually enfeebled by mental suffering; 
and feeling her health decline, she repeated a recpiest, which had 
often been refused, that she might see her daughter once at least 
before her death ; for Mary, from the time of the divorce, had 
been separated from the company that she might not imbibe the 
principles of her mother. Henry had the cruelty to refuse this 
last consolation to the unfortunate Catherine, who, from her death- 
bed, dictated a short letter to him, in which she conjured him to 
think of his salvation ; forgave him all the wrongs which he had 
done her ; and recommended their daughter Mary to his paternal 
protection. As he perused the letter, the stern heart of Henry 
was softened ; he even shed a tear, and desired the ambassador to 
bear to her a kind and consoling message ; but she died [January 
8, 1536] before his arrival; and was buried, by the king's 
direction, with becoming pomp, in the abbey church of Peter- 
borough. 

Four months did not elapse before Catherine was followed to 
the grave by Anne Boleyn. Henry's passion for her gradually 
subsided into coldness and neglect ; and the indul- Anne Eoieyn 
gent lover became at last a suspicious and unfeel- of the king, 
ing master. At the death of Catherine she made no secret of her 
joy. Out of respect for the Spanish princess, the king had 
ordered his servants to wear mourning on the day of her burial ; 
but Anne dressed herself in robes of yellow silk, and openly 
declared that she was now indeed a queen, since she had no longer 
a competitor. In this, however, she was fatally deceived. Among 
her maids was one named Jane Seymour, the daughter of a knight 
of Wiltshire, who, to equal or superior elegance of person, added 
a gentle and playful disposition. The queen discovered that an 
intimacy existed between Jane and Henry, and was so much 
affected thereby, that she prematurely gave birth to a dead male 
child, which was a bitter disappointment to Henry. Keports, 
injurious to Anne's honor had been circulated at court ; they had 



356 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1536. 



reached the ear of Henry, and some notice of them had been 
whispered to Anne herself. The king, eager to rid himself of a 
woman whom he no longer loved, referred these reports to the 
council; and a committee was appointed to inquire into the 
charges against the queen, who reported that sufficient proof had 
been discovered to convict her. On 1st May, 1536, the Lord 
Rochford appeared as principal challenger in a tilting match at 
Greenwich, and was opposed by Sir Henry Norris (one of those 
with whom Anne was suspected of being too familiar) as principal 
defendant. The king and Anne were both present; and it is said 
that, in one of the intervals between the courses, the queen, 
through accident or design, dropped her handkerchief from the 
balcony; that Norris, at whose feet it fell, took it up and wiped 
his face with it; and that Henry instantly changed color, started 
Anne arrested from his seat and retired. The nest day Anne 
Tower. was charged with infidelity to the king's bed, and 

was sent to the Tower. She abandoned herself to despair, and 
her affliction produced occasional fits of insanity. It is plain that 
her conduct had been imprudent ; that she had descended from 
her high station to make companions of her men-servants ; and 
that she had even been so weak as to listen to their declarations 
of love. But whether she rested here or not, is a question which 
probably can never be determined. Those with whom she was 
accused of having committed adultery, were tried, convicted, and 
put to death. Anne was soon tried and convicted. By the result 
of this trial her life was forfeited to the law ; but the vengeance 
of Henry had prepared for her an additional punishment in the 
degradation of herself and her daughter Elizabeth. He ordered 
Cranmer to declare that the marriage with Anne had been invalid. 
To hesitate would have cost the archbishop his head. Never, 
perhaps, was there a more solemn mockery of the forms of justice 
than in the pretended trial of this extraordinary cause. Cranmer 
pronounced definitively that the marriage formerly contracted be- 
tween Henry and Anne Boleyn was, and always had been, null 
and void. The divorce was approved and confirmed by convoca- 
tion and by parliament. To Elizabeth, the infant daughter of 
Anne, the necessary consequence was, that she, like her sister, 
the daughter of Catherine, was reputed illegitimate. On the 
evening before her death, Anne, falling on her knees before the 



1536 A. D.] HENRY THE EIGHTH. 357 

wife of the Tower lieutenant, asked her for a last favor : which 
was, that she would in her name beseech the princess Mary to 
forgive the many wrongs which the pride of a thoughtless, unfor- 
tunate woman had brought upon her. About noon, She is executed 
19th May, 1536, Anne was led to the scaffold, Ma y 19 > 1536 - 
dressed in a robe of black damask, and attended by her four 
maids. With the permission of the lieutenant, she addressed 
the spectators, but neither confessed guilt nor — as at her trial — 
protested innocence. She then knelt down ; one of her attend- 
ants tied a bandage over her eyes, and, as she exclaimed, " 
Lord God, have mercy upon my soul," the executioner, with one 
blow of his sword, severed her head from the body. Her remains 
were immediately afterward buried within the chapel of the Tower. 
Thus fell this unfortunate queen within four months after the 
death of Catherine. Henry had wept at the death of Catherine; 
but, as if he sought to display his contempt for the memory of 
Anne, he dressed himself in white on the day of n enry maiTies 
her execution, and was married to Jane Seymour Jane Se ?' mour - 
the next morning. 

For two years the princess Mary had lived at Hunsdon, a royal 
manor, in a state of absolute seclusion from society. Through 
Cromwell's intercession, she was permitted to write to her father; 
but before he would see her, she was obliged to acknowledge that 
it was her duty to observe all the king's laws; that Henry was 
the head of the church; and that the marriage between her father 
and mother had been incestuous and unlawful. But though she 
was received into favor, she was not restored in blood. The king 
had called a parliament to pass a new act of succession, entailing 
his crown on his issue by his queen, Jane Seymour. But he did 
not rest here : in violation of every constitutional principle, he 
obtained a power, in failure of children by his present or any fu- 
ture wife, to bequeath the crown to any such person or persons 
whom he might think proper. An insurrection insurrection in 
took place, in the autumn of 1536, in the north- ties, 
thern counties, where the people retained a strong attachment to 
the ancient doctrines ; and the clergy, farther removed from the 
influence of the court, were less disposed to abjure their opinions 
at the nod of the sovereign. When they saw the ruin of the 
establishments which they had revered from their childhood; the 



358 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



[A. D. 1536. 



monks driven from their homes, and in many instances compelled 
to beg their bread ; and the poor, who had formerly been fed at 
the doors of the convents, now abandoned without relief; they 
demanded the redress of their grievances. Nor was the insurrec- 
tion long confined to the common people. The nobility and 
gentry joined the insurgents, either through compulsion, as they 
afterward pretended, or through inclination, as was generally be- 
lieved. The enterprise was quaintly termed the "pilgrimage of 
grace;" on the banners wore painted the image of Christ cruci- 
fied, and the chalice and host, the emblems of the ancient belief; 
and wherever the pilgrims appeared, the ejected monks were re- 
placed in the monasteries, and the inhabitants were compelled to 
take the oath, and to join the army. The insurgents appointed 
delegates to lay their demands before Henry. After some delays 
the king offered, and the insurgents accepted, an unlimited 
pardon, with an understanding that their grievances should be 
shortly and patiently discussed in a parliament to be assembled at 
York. But the king, freed from his apprehensions, neglected to 
redeem his promise; and within two months the " pilgrims" were 
again under arms. They failed, however, in two successive at- 
tempts to surprise Hull and Carlisle. Most of the leaders were 
taken and executed; and tranquillity was restored by a general 
pardon ; but not until a large number had been put to death. 

The northern insurrection, instead of securing the stability, 

accelerated the ruin of the remaining monasteries. They were 

The suppression visited under pretext of the late rebellion, and by 

of the remaining ,. - , - 

religious houses, one expedient or other were successively wrested 
from the possessors and transferred to the crown. Many supe- 
riors deemed it prudent to obey the royal pleasure : some resigned 
their situations, and were replaced by successors of more easy and 
accommodating loyalty; and the obstinacy of the refractory monks 
and abbots was punished with imprisonment during the king's 
pleasure. Some of them, like the Carthusians, confined in New- 
gate, were left to perish through hunger, disease, and neglect ; 
others, like the abbots of Colchester, Reading, and Glastonbury, 
were executed as felons or traitors. A bill was next brought into 
parliament, vesting in the crown all the property of the monastic 
establishments. The suppression of the religious houses failed 
to produce the benefits which had been so ostentatiously foretold. 



1536 A. D.] HENRY THE EIGHTH. 359 

Pauperism was found to increase; the monastic property was 
lavishly squandered among the parasites of the court ; and the 
king, instead of lightening the national burdens, demanded com- 
pensation for the expense which he had incurred in the reforma- 
tion of religion. By the spring of the year 1540, all the 
monastic establishments in the kingdom had been torn from the 
the possession of the real owners by forced and illegal surrenders. 
To soften the odium of the measure, much has been said of the 
immorality practised, or supposed to be practised, within the 
monasteries. It is not in human nature that in numerous socie- 
ties of men all should be equally virtuous. The monks of dif- 
ferent descriptions amounted to many thousands ; and in such a 
multitude there must have existed individuals whose conduct was 
a disgrace to their profession. But when this has been conceded 
on the one hand, it ought to be admitted on the other that the 
charges against them are entitled to very little credit. They are 
statements to which the accused had no opportunity of replying, 
and were made to silence inquiry and sanctify injustice. 

To lull his own conscience, or to silence the murmurs of his 
subjects, Henry resolved to appropriate a portion of the spoil to 
the advancement of religion ; and for that purpose Henry founds 
was authorized by act of parliament to establish new t,lsh °P ncs - 
new bishoprics, deaneries, and colleges, and to endow them with 
adequate revenues out of the lands of the suppressed monasteries. 
But only six episcopal sees, those of Westminster, Oxford, Peter- 
borough, Bristol, Chester, and Gloucester, were established. At 
the same time the king converted fourteen abbeys and priories 
into cathedral and collegiate churches, attaching to each a dean 
and a certain number of prebendaries ; but was careful to retain 
for himself a portion of the original possessions, and to impose 
on the chapters the obligation of contributing annually a certain 
sum to the support of the resident poor, and another for the re- 
pair of the highways. 

In 1535, Henry sent to the German Protestant princes an em- 
bassy to represent to them that, as both he and they had defied 
the authority of the pontiff, it might be for their mutual interest 
to join in one common confederacy. But as the Germans, assum- 
ing a lofty tone, required that he should subscribe 
to their confession of faith, and should advance, tide's? b °° k ° f Ar ' 



360 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1537. 



partly as a loan, partly as a present, a large sum of money, the 
negotiations were broken off. Henry, with the aid of his theo- 
logians, compiled a book of "Articles," which was presented to 
the convocation by Cromwell, and subscribed by him and the 
other members. It may be divided into three parts. The first 
declares that the belief of the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, 
and the Athanasian Creed, is necessary for salvation : the second 
explains the three great sacraments of baptism, penance, and the 
altar, and pronounces them the ordinary means of justification; 
the third teaches that, though the use of images, the honoring 
of the saints, the soliciting of their intercession, and the usual 
ceremonies in the service, have not in themselves the power to 
remit sin or to justify the soul, yet they are highly profitable, and 
ought to be retained. A work entitled, " The godly and pious 
Institution of a Christian Man," was soon afterward published, 
subscribed by the archbishops, bishops, archdeacons, and certain 
doctors of canon and civil law, and pronounced by them to accord 
"in all things with the very true meaning of Scripture." It 
explains in succession the creed, the seven sacraments, the ten 
commandments, the Paternoster and Ave Maria, justification, and 
purgatory. 

In 1537, a new edition of the Bible was published in the Eng- 
lish language, and injunctions were issued that a copy of this 
edition should be placed in every church, at the joint expense of 
the incumbent and the parishioners. 

For many years persecution raged against those who differed 
from Henry's opinions ; and the prelates of the new learning 
Keiigious perse- were not less eager than those of the old to light 
cutl0n - the fagot for the punishment of heresy. The 

first victims were John Frith, and Hewet, a tailor, who maintained 
that it was not necessary to believe or deny the doctrine of the 
real presence. When, in 1535, a colony of German Anabaptists 
landed in England, they were instantly apprehended ; and four- 
teen, who refused to recant, were condemned to the flames. But 
of all the prosecutions for heresy, none excited greater interest 
than that of Lambert, a clergyman in priest's orders, and school- 
master in London, who wrote a book in which he denied the real 
presence. Cranmer summoned the schoolmaster to the archicpis- 
copal court ; but he appealed from the metropolitan to the head 



1538 A. D.] 



HENRY THE EIGHTH. 



861 



of the church ; and the king gladly embraced the opportunity of 
exercising in person the judicial functions attached to his su- 
premacy. On the appointed day he took his seat on the throne, 
clothed in robes of white silk, and in a mild and conciliatory tone 
inquired of the accused whether he were still attached to his 
former opinion. Having received an answer in the affirmative, 
he made a long and argumentative harangue against the writings 
of Lambert, who was condemned and executed. 

In 1538, a truce of ten years was concluded between Charles V. 
and Francis I., and the pontiff embraced the favorable opportu- 
nity to sound the disposition of the two monarchs relatively to 
the conduct of Henry. From both he received the same answer, 
that if lie would publish the bull, tliey would send ambassadors to 
England to protest against the schism, and would strictly forbid 
all commercial intercourse between their subjects and the English 
merchants. The substance of these negotiations was soon con- 
veyed to Henry, who ordered his navy to be equipped, the har- 
bors to be put in a state of defence, and the whole population to 
be called under arms. 

The pontiff, encouraged by the promises of Charles and Francis, 
soon ordered the publication of the bull. At the same time, Car- 
dinal Pole, many of whose relatives in England had The determma . 
been put to death on account of his acts, was de- tion of the p° ntiff - 
spatched on a secret mission to the Spanish and French courts ; 
but his arrival had been anticipated by the English agents : 
neither Charles nor Francis would incur the hostility of Henry by 
being the first to declare himself; and both equally prohibited the 
publication of the bull within their dominions. The pontiff, who 
saw that he was deluded by the insincerity of the two monarchs, 
recalled Pole to Rome ; and the papal court, abandoning all hope 
of succeeding by intimidation, submitted to watch in silence the 
course of political events. 

For some time, Cromwell and Cranmer had reigned without 
control in the council. But the general understanding between 
the pontiff and the Catholic sovereigns, and the mission of Pole 
to the emperor and the king of France, had awakened serious 
apprehensions and new projects in the mind of Henry. He de- 
termined to prove to the world that he was the de- 

The statute of 

cided advocate of the ancient doctrines, and there- the "Six Articles." 
x 31 



362 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1539 

fore caused an act to be passed, declaring that in the eucharist is 
really present the natural body of Christ, under the forms, and 
without the substance, of bread and wine; that communion, 
under both kinds, is not necessary for salvation ; that priests may 
not marry by the law of God ; that vows of chastity are to be 
observed ; that private masses ought to be retained, and that the 
use of auricular confession is expedient and necessary. This sta- 
tute (known as the " Six Articles") enacted severe penalties as 
the consequence of opposition to these points of faith. Latimer 
and Shaxton, the bishops of Worcester and Salisbury resigned 
their respective sees. But no one had greater cause of alarm than 
Cranmer. Before his promotion to the archiepiscopal dignity, he 
had married in Germany. At a convenient time his wife followed 
him to England, where she bore him several children. He was 
too prudent to acknowledge her publicly : but the secret quickly 
transpired, and many priests imitated his example. When the 
celibacy of the priesthood was made one of the six articles, Cran- 
mer saw with dismay that his marriage was reputed void in law, 
and he despatched his children with their mother to her friends 
in Germany. 

In 1539, an act was passed which placed prostrate at the foot 
of the throne the liberties of the whole nation. It declared that 
iienry celebrates the king for the time being should possess the right 
the court of Rome, of issuing, with the advice of his council, procla- 
mations which ought to have the effect of acts of parliament; 
adjudged all transgressors of such proclamations to suffer the im- 
prisonment and pay the fines expressed in them ; and made it 
high-treason to leave the realm in order to escape the penalty. At 
the same time, Henry celebrated his triumph over the court of 
Rome by a naval exhibition on the Thames. Two galleys, one 
decorated with the royal, the other with the pontifical arms, met 
on the river ; a stubborn conflict ensued ; at length the royalists 
boarded their antagonist; and the figures of the pope and the 
different cardinals were successively thrown into the water, amid 
the acclamations of the king, of his court, and of the citizens. 

Henry had been a widower more than two years. In 1537, 

Jane Seymour, his third queen, had borne him a male child, 

afterward Edward VI., and in less than a fortnight 

Henry tnurrics 

Anne of cieves. expired. Cromwell proposed to him to marry 



1540 A. D.] HENRY THE EIGHTH. 363 



Anne, sister of William, the reigning duke of Cleves, and one of 
the Protestant princes of Germany. The English envoys reported 
to the king that Anne was both tall and portly; but when she 
arrived Hem-y' s disappointment was evident. She was indeed 
tall and large as his heart could wish ; but her features, though 
regular, were coarse, her manners ungraceful, her figure ill- 
proportioned. Cromwell received orders to devise some expedient 
to interrupt the marriage. Two days passed in fruitless consulta- 
tion ; and the king at length, unprovided with any reasonable ex- 
cuse, and afraid of adding the German princes to his other ene- 
mies, was persuaded by Cromwell to submit to the ceremony. 
Anne had none of those qualifications which might have subdued 
the antipathy of her husband. His aversion increased ; he found 
fault with her person, and openly lamented his fate in being yoked 
for life with so disagreeable a companion. 

This unfortunate marriage had already shaken the credit of 
Cromwell ; his fall was hastened by a theological quarrel between 
Dr. Barnes, one of his dependants, and Gardiner, ThefaiiofCrom- 
bishop of Winchester. The king summoned the wel1 - 
former before himself and a commission of divines, and discussed 
with him several points of controverted doctrine. Barnes affected 
to recant, but in his next sermon maintained in still stronger 
terms the very doctrine which he had recanted. Irritated by this 
insult, the king committed him to the Tower. Henry ascertained 
that Barnes was the confidential agent of Cromwell ; that he had 
been employed in secret missions to Germany; and that he had 
been the real negotiator of the late marriage with Anne of Cleves. 
Cromwell was arrested on a charge of high-treason. He was 
confronted, at his request, with his accusers in presence of the 
royal commissioners, but was refused the benefit of a public trial 
before his peers. The court preferred to proceed against him by 
bill of attainder ; a most iniquitous measure, but of which he had 
no right to complain, as he had been the first to employ it against 
others. 

The disgrace of Cromwell was quickly followed by the divorce 
of the queen — on the ground of alleged misrepresentation having 
been made to him as to her person, and the want of consent on 
his part both at the celebration, and ever since the celebration 
of the marriage. Henry and Anne now called each other bro- 



864 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1541. 



ther and sister, and a yearly income of three thousand pounds, 
with the palace of Richmond for her residence, amply indemni- 
fied the degraded queen for the loss of a capricious and tyrannical 
husband. 

From the moment of his arrest, Cromwell had labored with- 
out ceasing to save his life. Unfortunately, however, among his 
papers had been found a clandestine correspondence with the 
princes of Germany; the king would listen to no plea in favor of 
a man who had betrayed his confidence to strangers ; and on the 
fourth day after the bill of attainder had received the royal assent, 
he was led to execution. On the scaffold he asked pardon of his 
sovereign, and admitted that he had been seduced by the spirit of 
error ; but protested that he had returned to the truth, and should 
die in the profession of the Catholic faith. 

Henry did not long remain a widower after his divorce from 
Anne of Cleves. Within a month, Catherine, daughter to the 

Catherine How- late lord Edmund Howard, and niece to the duke 
throne/ of Norfolk, appeared at court with the title of 

queen. She was, however, accused of adultery, and found guilty; 
and in sis months after her marriage she was executed. 

The king's attention was next directed to his duties as head of 
the church. He had formerly sanctioned the publication of an 
English version of the Bible, and granted permission to all his 
subjects to read it at their leisure ; but it had been represented to 
him, that even the authorized version was disfigured by unfaithful 
renderings, and contaminated with notes calculated to mislead the 

Restrictions on ignorant and unwary. To remedy the evil, it was 
reading the Bible, enacted, that the version of Tyndal should be dis- 
used altogether as "crafty, false, and untrue," and that the au- 
thorized translation should be published without note or comment. 
The permission of reading the Bible to others in public was re- 
voked; that of reading it to private families was confined to 
persons of the rank of lords or gentlemen ; and that of reading 
it personally and in secret was granted only to men who were 
householders, and to females of noble or gentle birth. 

We have hitherto confined our attention to those occurrences in 
this reign which had an immediate tendency to quicken or restrain 
the spirit of religious innovation. Other matters of foreign and 
domestic policy now claim notice. 



1541 A. D.] HENRY THE EIGHTH. 365 

In 1536, it was enacted that the whole of "Wales should be 
united with the realm of England ; that all the natives should 
enjoy the same rights, liberties, and laws, which were enjoyed and 
inherited by others of the king's subjects. 

"When Henry ascended the throne, the exercise of the royal 
authority in Ireland was circumscribed within very narrow limits, 
comprising only the principal seaports, with one- 
half of the five counties of Louth, Westmeath, 
Dublin, Kildare, and Wexford. Henry's innovations in religion 
were viewed with equal abhorrence by the native Irish and the 
descendants of the English colonists. The Geraldines, aware of 
this circumstance, had proclaimed themselves the champions of 
the ancient faith. On the other hand, the cause of the king was 
supported by a courtly prelate, Dr. Brown, who, from the ofiice of 
provincial of the Augustinian friars in England, had been raised 
to the archiepiscopal see of Dublin, in reward of his subserviency 
to the politics of Cromwell. But Henry determined to enforce 
submission. A parliament was summoned by which statutes were 
passed which were copied from the proceedings in England. The 
papal authority was abolished ; Henry was declared head of the 
Irish church ; and the firsi>fruits of all ecclesiastical livings were 
given to the king. 

Several causes contributed to produce a rupture between Henry 
and his nephew, the king of Scotland, but our space does not 
permit us to trace them. The king of Scots, satis- The affairs of 
fied with his own creed, refused to engage in theo- of James, 
logical disputes ', and the pontiff, to rivet him more closely to 
the communion of the Apostolic See, bestowed a cardinal's cap 
on the most able and most favored of his counsellors, David 
Beaton, afterward archbishop of St. Andrew's. When Paul de- 
termined to publish the sentence of deprivation against Henry, 
James signified his assent, and promised to join with Charles 
and Francis in their endeavors to convert or punish the apos- 
tate monarch. 

As, however, neither Charles nor Francis attempted to enforce 
the papal bull, their inactivity induced the king of Scots to pre- 
serve the relations of amity with his uncle. But Henry con- 
tinued to grow more jealous both of the religious opinions of 
James, and of his connection with the French court. The Scot- 

31* 



566 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1542. 



tish parliament, as if it meant to stigmatize the proceedings of 
that of England, passed several laws in support of the ancient 
doctrines and of the papal supremacy. In 1542, forays were re- 
ciprocally made across the borders; and each nation charged the 
other with the first aggression; but the Scots had the advantage, 
who at Haldenrig defeated three thousand cavalry, and made 
most of the captains prisoners. Enraged at this loss, Henry 
published a declaration of war, in which he claimed the supe- 
riority over the Scottish crown, and ordered the duke of Norfolk 
to assemble a numerous army at York. Norfolk succeeded, and 
James died through grief at his defeat. A week before his 
death, his queen was delivered of a female child, who, under the 
name of Mary, was proclaimed his successor on the Scottish 
throne. These events opened a new scene to the ambition of 
Henry, who determined to marry his son Edward to the infant 
queen of Scotland; and, in consequence of that marriage, to de- 
mand, as natural tutor of the young princess, the government of 
the kingdom. 

In Edinburgh, soon after the death of the king, Cardinal Bea- 
ton had published a will of the deceased monarch, by which the 
James's win dis- regency was vested in himself and three other no- 
regarded, blenien ; but this instrument was disregarded by 
the lords assembled in the city. James Hamilton, earl of Arran, 
and presumptive heir to the throne, was declared governor dur- 
ing the minority of the queen ; and the cardinal appeared to ac- 
quiesce in an arrangement which he had not power to disturb. 
Seeming tranquillity soon vanished, and war raged for some 
years. At length, the Scots were comprehended in the treaty 
of peace between England and France; and though tbe condi- 
tions of that comprehension became the subject of dispute, the 
latter part of Henry's reign was not disturbed by open hostili- 
ties. 

Respecting France, the reader will recollect that the king of 
that country complained of Henry's marriage with Anne Boleyn, 
as of a violation of his promise. This dissension, though it 
might weaken, did not dissolve, the friendship which had so 
long subsisted between them; but fresh bickerings ensued; the 
tempers of the two princes became reciprocally soured; each 
wishing to chastise what he deemed the caprice, the ingratitude, 



1546 A. D.] HENRY THE EIGHTH. 367 



and the perfidy of the other. The military transactions which 
this hostile feeling caused belong rather to the history of France 
than of England. Peace was concluded in 1546. 

During the latter part of Henry's reign the court was divided 
by the secret intrigues of the two religious parties, which con- 
tinued to cherish an implacable hatred against Cranmer re- 
each other. The men of the old learning natu- my. 
rally looked upon Cranmer as their most steady and most dan- 
gerous enemy; and, though he was careful not to commit any 
open transgression of the law, yet the encouragement which he 
gave to the new preachers, and the clandestine correspondence 
which he maintained with the German reformers, would have 
proved his ruin, had he not found a friend and advocate in his 
sovereign. Henry still retained a grateful recollection of his 
former services, and felt no apprehension of resistance or treason 
from a man who, on all former occasions, whatever were his real 
opinions or wishes, had moulded his conscience in conformity to 
the royal will. 

Henry's sixth queen was Catherine Parr, relict of the late Lord 
Latimer, who, with her brother, the earl of Essex, and her uncle, 
created Lord Parr of Horton, zealously promoted Henry marries 
the new doctrines. But her zeal transgressed Catherme 1,arr - 
the bounds of prudence. She not only read the prohibited 
works ; she presumed to argue with her husband, and to dispute 
the decisions of the head of the church. Of all men, Henry 
was the least disposed to brook the lectures of a female theolo- 
gian, and he gave orders to have articles prepared against Cathe- 
rine; but the intelligence was immediately, perhaps designedly, 
conveyed to the queen, who, repairing to a neighboring apart- 
ment, fell into a succession of fits, and during the intervals 
made the palace ring with her cries and lamentations. Henry, 
moved with pity, or incommoded by the noise, first sent his 
physician, and was afterward carried in a chair, to console her. 
In the evening she waited on him, in the company of her sister, 
and adroitly turning the conversation to the subject of religion, 
took occasion to express her admiration of his learning, and the 
implicit deference which she paid to his decisions, which conduct 
led to their reconciliation. 

The king had long indulged without restraint in the plea- 



368 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1547 

The king's last sures of the table. At last he grew so enormously 
illness. corpulent, that he could not support the weight of 

his own body. An inveterate ulcer in the thigh, which had 
more than once threatened his life, and which now seemed to 
baffle all the skill of his surgeons, added to the irascibility of his 
temper. 

Of the king's conduct during his sickness, we know little. 
It is said that at the commencement he betrayed a wish to be re- 
conciled to the see of Rome; that the other bishops, afraid of 
the penalties, evaded the question; but that Gardiner advised 
him to consult his parliament, and to commit his ideas to writ- 
ing. He was constantly attended by his confessor, the bishop 
of Rochester, heard mass daily in his chamber, and received 
the communion under one kind. About a month before his 
death, he endowed the magnificent establishment of Trinity Col- 
lege in Cambridge, for a master and sixty fellows and scholars; 
and afterward reopened the church of the Gray Friars, which, 
with St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and an ample revenue, he gave 
to the city of London. 

Of his sentiments on his death-bed, nothing can be asserted 
with any degree of confidence. One account makes him die in 

He dies, January the anguish of despair; according to another, he 
28 ' lo47, refused spiritual aid till he could only reply to 

the exhortation of the archbishop by a squeeze of the hand; 
while a third represents him as expiring in the edifying senti- 
ments of devotion and repentance. He died on Friday, the 28th 
of January, 1547, about two in the morning. 

To form a just estimate of the character of Henry, we must 
distinguish between the young king, guided by the counsels of 

The character of "VVolsey, and the monarch of more mature age, 
Henry. governing by his own judgment, and with the 

aid of ministers selected and fashioned by himself. In his youth 
the beauty of his person, the elegance of his manners, and his 
adroitness in every martial and fashionable exercise, were calcu- 
lated to attract the admiration of his subjects. His court was 
gay and splendid; and a succession of amusements seemed to 
absorb his attention ; yet his pleasures were not permitted to en- 
croach on his more important duties; he assisted at the council, 
perused the despatches, and corresponded with his generals and 



1547 A. D.] HENHY THE EIGHTH. 3G9 

ambassadors; nor did the minister, trusted and powerful as he 
was, dare to act, till he had asked the opinion and taken the 
pleasure of his sovereign. His natural abilities had been im- 
proved by study; and his esteem for literature may be inferred 
from the learned education which he gave to his children, and 
from the number of eminent scholars to whom he granted pen- 
sions in foreign states, or on whom he bestowed preferment in 
his own. The immense treasure which he inherited from his 
father was perhaps a misfortune; because it engendered habits 
of expense not to be supported from the ordinary revenue of the 
crown; and the soundness of his politics may be doubted, 
which, under the pretence of supporting the balance of power, 
repeatedly involved the nation in continental hostilities. Yet 
even these errors served to throw a lustre round the English 
throne, and raised its possessor in the eyes of his own subjects 
and of the different nations of Europe. But as the king ad- 
vanced in age, his vices gradually developed themselves; and 
after the death of Wolsey they were indulged without restraint. 
He became as rapacious as he was prodigal; as obstinate as he 
was capricious; as fickle in his friendships as he was merciless in 
his resentments. Though liberal of his confidence, he soon grew 
suspicious of those whom he had trusted ; and, as if he possessed 
no other right to the crown than that which he derived from the 
very questionable claim of his father, he viewed with an evil eye 
every remote descendant of the Plantagenets; and eagerly em- 
braced the slightest pretexts to remove those whom his jealousy 
represented as future rivals to himself or his posterity. In pride 
and vanity, he was perhaps without a parallel. Inflated with 
the praises of interested admirers, he despised the judgment of 
others; acted as if he deemed himself infallible in matters of po- 
licy and religion; and seemed to look upon dissent from his 
opinion as equivalent to a breach of allegiance. In his estima- 
tion, to submit and obey were the great, the paramount duties 
of subjects: and this persuasion steeled his breast against re- 
morse for the blood which he shed, and led him to trample with- 
out scruple on the liberties of the nation. When he ascended 
the throne, there still existed a spirit of freedom, which on more 
than one occasion defeated the arbitrary measures of the court, 
though directed by an able minister, and supported by the au- 



(0 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1547. 



thority of the sovereign; but in the lapse of a few years that 
spirit had fled, and before the death of Henry, the king of Eng- 
land had grown into a despot, the people had shrunk into a nation 
of slaves. 

By the obsequiousness of the parliament, the assumption of 
the ecclesiastical supremacy, and the servility of religious fac- 
tions, Henry acquired and exercised the most despotic sway 
over the lives, the fortunes, and the liberties of his subjects. 
Happily, the forms of a free government were still suffered to 
exist ; into these forms a spirit of resistance to arbitrary power 
gradually infused itself; the pretensions of the crown were op- 
posed by the claims of the people; and the result of a long and 
arduous struggle was that constitution which for more than a 
century has excited the envy and admiration of Europe. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. 


Scotland. 


France. 




Mary. 


Francis. 


Paul III. 




Henry II. 


Julius III. 


Germany. 


Spain. 




Charles V. 


Charles V 



Hertford made Protector — Progress of the Reformation — The Lord Admiral 
arrested and beheaded — Troubles with Lady Mary — Foreign Preachers — 
Somerset arrested and executed — Death of the King — From A. D. 1547, to 
1553. 

Henry had confided the government of the king and kingdom, 

during the minority of his son Edward, who was only nine years 

Hertford made old, to Cranmer and fifteen other guardians. The 

protector of the .. , . , -it-it o-i 

realm. new king was proclaimed on Monday, January ol, 

1547. The council appointed one of their number to transact 



1547 A. D.] 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 



371 



business with the foreign envoys, and to represent on other 
occasions the person of the young sovereign. The earl of Hert- 
ford, the young king's uncle, was immediately elected to this 
position as protector of the realm and guardian of the king's per- 
son. The appointment of Hertford was announced by proclama- 
tion, and was received with transports of joy by all who were 
attached to the new doctrines, or who sought to improve their 
fortunes at the expense of the church. 

Hertford was created duke of Somerset, and the other members 
of the council of regency also obtained promotion. 

The coronation of Edward took place on the 20th February, 
1547. Though the duke possessed the title of protector, he had 
been compelled to accept it on the condition that he should never 
act without the assent of the majority of the council ; now he 
procured letters-patent under the great seal, conferring on himself 
alone the whole authority of the crown. 

The intelligence of the death of Henry had made a deep 
impression on the mind of the king of France. That monarch 
entertained a notion that the duration of their Death of the kin"' 
lives was limited to the same year ; and sought in of Franc <s- 
vain to divert his melancholy by change of residence and the 
pleasures of the chase. At the same time, he appeared to feel 
an affection for the son of his former friend ; a proposal was made 
and accepted to renew the alliance between the crowns; and 
messengers had already been appointed to receive the oaths of the 
two monarchs, when Francis expired at Rambouillet, about two 
months after the death of his English brother. His son and 
successor, Henry II., pursued a very different policy, and when 
the treaty with England was offered to him for signature, refused 
to shackle himself with engagements which might prevent him 
from espousing the cause of the infant queen of Scotland. 

In 1544, Henry, foiled by Cardinal Beaton in an effort to 
obtain the custody of the young cmeen, had despatched the earl 
of Hertford to invade Scotland at the head of a powerful army; 
and in that year the cardinal was murdered by some conspirators, 
who sought thereby to obtain favor with the king of England. 
The death of Henry made no alteration in the policy of the 
English cabinet. The protector hastily concluded a treaty with 
the murderers ; by which they bound themselves to procure, with 



372 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



[A. D. 1547. 



all their power, the marriage of their infant sovereign with 
Edward VI., and never to surrender the castle during her minority 
to any Scotsman without a previous license in writing from the 
English king and the protector. War soon broke out afresh, in 
which England succeeded. 

Somerset and his associates now undertook to establish the 
new religious creed. From the young king they could experience 
Proceedings in n0 opposition now, and they feared no resentment 
religion. hereafter, for the men to whom his education had 

been intrusted by Henry were zealous though secret partisans of 
the reformed doctrines. Still, to change the established creed 
during his minority appeared an undertaking of danger, and on 
this account they determined to proceed with cautious steps. 

The kingdom was divided into six circuits, to each of which 
was assigned a certain number of visitors, partly clergymen and 
partly laymen. The moment they arrived in any diocese, the 
exercise of spiritual authority by every other person ceased. 
They summoned before them the clergy and principal house- 
holders from each parish; administered the oaths of allegiance 
and supremacy; required answers upon oath to every question 
which they thought proper to put, and exacted a promise of 
obedience to the royal injunctions. 

Among the prelates, there was no individual whom the men of 
the new learning more feared, or those of the old learning more 
respected, for his erudition and abilities, his spirit and influence, 
than Gardiner, bishop of Winchester. That prelate commenced 
a controversy with the protector and the archbishop ; the conse- 
quence of which was, that, though he could not be charged with 
any offence against the law, he was committed to the Fleet and 
detained a close prisoner till the end of the session. 

But the ministers were careful to repair many of those breaches 

in the constitution which had been made by the despotism of the 

last reign. All felonies created since the first of 

Statutes repealed. TT ttttt i 11 a ± 1 j.i 

Henry Vlll., and all treasons created since the 
twenty-fifth of Edward IH., were at once erased from the sta- 
tute-book ; the privilege of clergy, with the exception of a few 
cases, was restored ; in convictions of treason, two witnesses were 
required ; the laws against the Lollards, the prohibition of read- ■ 
ing the Scriptures, and of printing, selling, or retaining certain 



1547 A. D.] EDWARD THE SIXTH. 373 



English publications; all enactments respecting doctrine and 
matters of religion, and the statute which gave to the royal pro- 
clamations the force of law, were repealed. It should, however, 
be observed, that if, by the repeal of so many statutes, every sort 
of religious restraints was removed from the men of the new 
learning, it was not intended to grant any additional liberty to 
those of the old. The claim of the spiritual supremacy was 
placed on an equal footing with the other rights of the crown ; 
and to deny that the present or any succeeding king was head of 
the church was made the same kind of capital offence as to deny 
that he was head of the state. The election of bishops was next 
withdrawn from the deans and chapters, as a useless and uu mean- 
ing form, and vested immediately in the crown. 

The mendicants, who had formerly obtained relief at the gates 
of the monasteries and convents, now wandered in crowds through 
the country, and by their numbers and importuni- statute aKa j as t 
ties often extorted alms from the intimidated pas- mendicants, 
senger. To abate this nuisance, a statute was enacted by which 
two justices of the peace might order the letter V to be burned 
on the breast of each such mendicant, and adjudge him to serve 
the informer two years as his slave. His master was bound to 
provide him with bread, water, and refuse meat; might fix an 
iron ring round his neck, arm, or leg, and was authorized to com- 
pel him to labor at any work, however vile it might be, by beat- 
ing, chaining, or otherwise. If the slave absented himself a 
fortnight, the letter S was burned on his cheek or forehead, and 
he became a slave for life ; and if he offended a second time in 
like manner, his flight subjected him to the penalties of felony. 
Two years later, this severe statute was repealed. The session of 
1547 closed with a general pardon from the king, in consequence 
of which Gardiner obtained his liberty. The archbishop, aware 
that the great majority of the nation was still attached to the an- 
cient faith, deemed it prudent to pursue his course with caution 
and perseverance. Latimer, who had resigned his bishopric in 
1539, was called from his retirement, and appointed to preach at 
St. Paul's Cross. The character of the man, the boldness of his 
invectives, his quaint but animated eloquence, were observed to 
make a deep impression on the minds of his hearers ; and a pul- 
pit was erected for him in the king's private garden, where the 

32 



374 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1548. 



young Edward, attended by his court, listened to his sermons, and 
admired what he could not understand, the controversial supe- 
riority of the preacher. 

The bishops received orders to abolish in their respective 
dioceses the custom of bearing candles on Candlemas-day, of 
orders to abolish receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday, and of carry- 
certain customs. i n g palms on Palm Sunday. A proclamation also 
appeared, which required that all images whatsoever should be 
destroyed. To this succeeded an order for the public admi- 
nistration of the sacrament under both kinds, and in the English 
language. 

It was soon discovered that imprisonment had not broken the 
spirit of Gardiner. He was again summoned before the council, 

Gardiner com- and the next day, in proof of his submission, was 
xower. ordered to preach at St. Paul's Cross, in the pre- 

sence of the king, on the feast of St. Peter. The sermon was 
preached, and the next day the bishop was committed to the 
Tower. In his discourse he had treated of the mass and the 
eucharist, though the protector had forbidden him, in writing, to 
touch on any controverted matter respecting these questions. His 
imprisonment was evidently illegal ; but his absence from parlia- 
ment was not less desirable in the present than it had been in the 
past year. His constancy, however, encouraged the partisans of 
the ancient faith ; and in a short time several other prelates ven- 
tured to express their disapprobation of the conduct of Cranmer. 
That prelate was now employed with a committee of bishops and 
divines in the composition of a most important work, a liturgy in 
the English language, for the use of the English Church; the 
adoption of which by authority of parliament would, it was hoped, 
consummate the separation of the kingdom from the communion 
of B/mie, by destroying the similarity which still remained in the 
mode of religious worship sanctioned by the two churches. They 
soon compiled a book of common prayer and administration of the 
sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies, for the use of the 
Church of England. A bill was introduced to abolish all other 
forms of worship, and establish the forms set forth in the book of 
common prayer in their place. 

To this important innovation in the manner of public worship, 
succeeded another not less important in the condition of the 



1549 A. D.] EDWARD THE SIXTH. 375 

priesthood. A bill for the marriage of priests was A bi]1 f the 
introduced, and passed after a long and stormy marriage of priests. 
discussion. It states that, though it were to be wished that the 
clergy would observe perpetual continency, as more becoming 
their spiritual character, rendering them better able to attend to 
their ministry, and freeing them from worldly cares and embar- 
rassments, yet so many inconveniences had arisen from compulsive 
chastity, that it was deemed better to allow marriage. 

The protector had a younger brother, Thomas, whose fate about 
this time excited much attention. Between them a broad distinc- 
tion had been drawn by the late king, and while The ambition of 
Edward had risen to the rank of earl, had obtained Thomas Seymour. 
the command of armies, and been named one of the governors of 
his nephew, Thomas had been left without title. The first step 
toward the improvement of his fortune was his alliance with the 
queen dowager, who married him, almost before the dead body of 
Henry was deposited in the grave. With the person of Catherine, 
Thomas Seymour became master of her wealth and her dower, 
and his next object was to win and monopolize the affection of 
his nephew. With this view, he indulged the young Edward in 
all his wishes ; secretly supplied him with large sums of money, 
blamed the severity with which he was used by the protector, and 
hinted that he was kept under undue restraint. The king readily 
imbibed the opinions of the man whom he loved ; and a resolu- 
tion was taken that he should attempt, with the aid of his parti- 
sans, to procure the guardianship for himself. The plot was 
betrayed to the protector. Thomas condescended to acknowledge 
his fault; and the two brothers mutually forgave each other. 
But a new prospect soon opened to his ambition, which, as it 
sought for power, was not to be satisfied with money. He began 
to aspire to the hand of the lady Elizabeth, the king's sister, and 
to condemn that precipitate union with Catherine which excluded 
him from the pursuit of so noble a prize. His attentions to the 
princess were remarked ; and their familiarity was so undisguised 
that it afforded employment to the propagators of scandal, and 
awakened the jealousy of his wife. But the queen in a short 
time died in childbirth ; and her death happened so opportunely 
for his project, that by the malice of his enemies it was attri- 
buted to poison. He now redoubled his court to the princess. 



876 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1549. 



and means were devised to extort the consent of the council to 
the marriage. 

The protector at length determined to crush so dangerous a 
competitor. Sherington, master of the mint at Bristol, was ex- 
amined before the council, on a charge of having 

lie is executed. n «• , » ■• . . ,1 

amassed an enormous iortune by clipping the coin. 
To save his life, he said that he had promised to coin money for 
Seymour, who intended to change the present form of the govern- 
ment. Seymour was committed to the Tower, and in March, 
1549, was executed. 

We may now return to the affairs of Scotland. In an assembly 
of the Scottish lords at Stirling, in 1548, it was resolved to im- 
Tbe affairs of pl° re the aid of France, their most ancient and 
Scotland. faithful ally, to offer the young queen in marriage 

to the dauphin, and to propose that for greater security she should 
be educated in the French court. In anger, the English sent the 
lbrd Gray de Wilton, who, at the head of a powerful army, spread 
the flames of war to the gates of the capital : Dalkeith was re- 
duced to ashes; and Haddington was taken, fortified, and garri- 
soned with more than two thousand men, partly English and 
partly Italians. Gray had scarcely begun his retreat, when a 
hostile squadron anchored at Leith, having on board three thou- 
sand German, and two thousand French veterans. The young 
queen and her household left Scotland, and reached in safety the 
harbor of Brest. From Brest that princess, being in her sixth 
year, was conducted to St. Germain en Laye, and contracted to 
her destined husband, the dauphin of France. 

The war continued with alternate losses and advantages to both 
parties ; though, on the whole, the balance of success inclined in 
favor of Scotland. The English ascendency gradually yielded, 
not so much to the power of its adversaries as to the influence of 
a series of untoward events in England. 

The depreciation of the currency during the late reign had 
been followed by an advance in the price of commodities. The 
The discontent P e °pl e became discontented, and as they saw that 
of the people. th e new proprietors of the church-lands paid not 
the same attention as the old to the wants of the poor, they 
coupled their own sufferings with the innovations in religion. 
The day approached when the use of the old liturgy was to cease, 



1549 A. D.] EDWARD THE SIXTH. 377 



and that of the new to begin; instead of the high mass, its 
music and its ceremonies, with which they had been familiarized 
from their infancy, they were to hear what they deemed an inani- 
mate service, and the common people rose, almost at the same 
time, in several counties. The insurrection was finally suppressed, 
but it was only with the aid of the bands of adventurers that had 
been raised in Italy, Spain, and Germany to serve in the war 
against Scotland. 

These events shook the power of the protector, and his fall was 
accelerated by the hostile attitude of the king of France. The 
French obtained several advantages over the Eng- The fall of the 
lish in France, where war had recommenced, and protector. 
these disasters were attributed to the misconduct of the pro- 
tector. Somerset, on the other hand, grew every day more posi- 
tive and despotic. His very friends could offer no apology for 
his rapacity. From a simple knight, with a slender fortune, he 
had become the possessor of more than two hundred manors ; and 
that magnificent pile of building, which still retains from him the 
name of Somerset House, was a standing memorial of his vanity 
and extravagance. 

In a proclamation, signed by every member of the council, the 
duke was charged with divers high crimes and misdemeanors. 
Edward was not unwilling to be emancipated from the control of 
his uncle; and the protector was [October 14, 1519] deprived 
of his office in due form by a wilt under the great seal, and with 
the sign manual of the king. He was then committed a prisoner 
to the Tower; and five of his confidential advisers were incarce- 
rated with him. An intimation was given to him, that, if he 
hoped for pardon, he must submit to a frank and unqualified ac- 
knowledgment of his guilt. The condition, though painful to his 
feelings, was gratefully accepted. On his knees he confessed his 
presumption, negligence, and incapacity, and earnestly implored 
for mercy. Life was promised ; but on condition that he should 
forfeit all his offices, and a large portion of his property. Having 
given security for the payment of a heavy fine, he was discharged 
from the Tower, and received a pardon. 

A treaty was soon concluded with France : and for a sum of 
money England surrendered all her remaining territory in that 
country. The sovereigns of England from this time contented 

Y 32* 



878 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1549. 



themselves with the sole title of kings of France, a barren but 
invidious distinction, which, after two centuries and a half, was 
wisely laid aside by George III. 

The partisans of the new doctrines felt that the Reformation 

still rested on a very insecure foundation. Eleven-twelfths of 

the nation retained a strong attachment to the creed of their fa- 

Proceedings thers. The council ordered Bonner to preach at 

against non-con- n ._ ,, » 1 i i i 

forming bishops, fet. Paul s. At the appointed day, crowds assem- 
bled to hear the prelate; many from curiosity, some for the pur- 
pose of censure. In his sermon, Bonner broached views different 
from those held by the council; and Cranmer and Ridley were 
appointed to try and punish the refractory prelate. Bonner ap- 
peared before his judges, with the undaunted air of a man who 
feels conscious that he suffers in a just cause. The archbishop 
pronounced the sentence of deprivation; and Bonner was re- 
manded to the Marshalsea, where he remained a prisoner till the 
king's death; and the bishopric of Westminster was dissolved by 
royal authority. Gardiner had now been for two years a prisoner 
in the Tower, without being able to obtain a trial, or even a copy 
of the charges against him. He was visited by a deputation 
from the council, and required to approve of every religious in- 
novation which had been established by act of parliament or by 
order of the council. Gardiner replied, that he asked for no 
favour; he sought only a legal trial; he was willing to stand or 
fall by the law. At length a commission was issued against him 
for contempt; but he defended himself with ability and perse- 
verance. Cranmer cut short the proceedings, pronouncing him 
contumacious, and adjudging him to be deprived of his bishop- 
ric. By order of the council, he was sent back to a meaner cell 
in the Tower, with instructions that no man should see him but 
one of the warders; that all his books and papers should be 
taken from him and examined; and that he should be refused 
the use of pen, ink, and paper. 

There were two other prelates prisoners in the Tower — Heath, 
bishop of Worcester, and Day, bishop of Chichester — both distin- 
guished by their learning, their moderation, and their attachment 
to the ancient creed. Both these bishops were kept in custody 
till the commencement of the next reign. 

There still remained one individual whose conversion in the 



1550 A. D.] EDWARD THE SIXTH. 379 

estimation of the reformers would have balanced the opposition 
of a whole host of bishops — the Lady Mary, the The persecution 
sister of Edward, and the presumptive heir to of Lady Mary, 
the crown. She had embraced the first opportunity of express- 
ing to the protector her dislike of further innovation. The 
" Statute of Uniformity" supplied him with the power of putting 
her constancy to the test. Its framers appear to have taken for 
their model the intolerance of the German reformers. Not only 
did they introduce the new liturgy into the national churches 
and chapels, but invaded the secrecy of the closet, and enacted 
severe penalties against every priest who should celebrate, every 
lay man or woman who should attend where a priest celebrated 
mass, even in a private house. Mary received an admonition 
that she must conform to the provisions of the statute. She 
replied that she did not consider it binding in conscience; re- 
minded the lords that they had sworn to observe the laws re- 
specting religion which had been established by her father; and 
at last appealed from their intolerance to the powerful protection 
of her cousin, the Emperor Charles V. It chanced to be the 
very time when the English cabinet solicited the aid of that 
prince with respect to French affairs. Policy prevailed over fa- 
naticism; and at the imperial intercession the indulgence which 
Mary prayed for was reluctantly granted. Yet after the conclu- 
sion of peace she was again harassed; but she constantly asserted 
that her soul was God's, and that she would neither change her 
faith nor dissemble her opinion. Dr. Mallet, Mary's chaplain, 
was committed to close custody in the Tower. An active corre- 
spondence ensued; Mary demanding the enlargement of her 
chaplain, the council requiring that she should conform to the 
law. At length the chief officers of her household were com- 
manded to prevent the use of the ancient service in the house. 
Having consulted her, they returned to the council, and offered 
to submit to any punishment, rather than undertake what they 
could not find in their hearts or consciences to perform. They 
were committed to the Tower for contempt; and Mary was again 
urged to conform to the new faith; but she replied, "Rather 
than use any other service than was used at the death of the late 
king, my father, I will lay my head on a block and suffer death. 
If my chaplains do say no mass, I can hear none. They may do 



380 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1551. 



therein as they will ; but none of your new service shall be used 
in my house, or I will not tarry in it." 

After this bold answer we hear no more of her being perse- 
cuted. It is probable that Mary continued to have the mass 
celebrated, but in greater privacy; and that the council deemed 
it prudent to connive at that which it soon became dangerous to 
notice. The declining health of the king directed every eye to- 
ward her as his successor. She occasionally visited her sick 
brother; and the dignity which she assumed was calculated to 
overawe her opponents. 

Though the statutes against heresy had been repealed in the 
first year of the king's reign, still the profession of erroneous 
doctrine was held to be an offence punishable by the common 
law of the realm. It might, indeed, have been hoped that men 
who had writhed under the lash of persecution would have 
learned to respect the rights of conscience. But, however forci- 
Persecution on bly the reformers had claimed the privilege of 

account of reli- .,. „ ■■ , , ,, 1 , -1 • ' ,i 

gion. judging lor themselves under the late king, they 

were not disposed to concede it to others when they themselves 
came into the exercise of power. 

Several were put to death for preaching new doctrines : one of 
these, a woman named Bocher, would have been spared, but 
Cranmer urged the king to put his signature to the warrant. 
Another victim was Von Parris, a Dutchman, and a surgeon in 
London. He denied the divinity of Christ; and, having been 
excommunicated by his brethren of the Dutch church in that 
capital, was arraigned before Cranmer, Ridley, May, Coverdale, 
and several others. Coverdale acted as interpreter : but the pri- 
soner refused to abjure. Cranmer pronounced judgment, and de- 
livered him to the jailer at the Compter, and a few days later 
the unhappy man was committed to the flames. 

The marquess of Northampton proceeded to Paris, in May, 

1551, to invest the king of France with the order of the Garter, 

The treason and and to seek a wife for his sovereign. His first 

execution of So-, n <• i « « ,t i 

nierset. demand, ot the young queen ot Scotland, was in- 

stantly refused; his second, of the princess Elizabeth, was as 
readily granted. The negotiators agreed that as soon as Eliza- 
beth had completed her twelfth year she should be married to 
Edward; but a difference about her dower suspended the con- 



1552 A. D.] EDWARD THE SIXTH. 881 



elusion of the treaty for eight weeks. In November, 1551, So- 
merset was brought to trial for violent and riotous proceedings, 
and for conspiring against the nobles who were hostile to his 
views. It was treason for any person, to the number of forty or 
above, to assemble in a forcible manner, to the intent to murder, 
kill or slay, take or imprison any of the king's privy council ; 
and felony to stir up any persons to the committal of such of- 
fences. Somerset was arraigned before his peers, and defended 
himself with spirit, and was acquitted of the treason, but found 
guilty of the felony, and received the usual sentence of death. 
After his condemnation, and in the solitude of his cell, he had 
leisure to compare his situation with that of his brother, not 
three years before. Every avenue to the throne was closed ; his 
nephew, the king, was convinced of his guilt, and of the expedi- 
ence of his punishment; and he received for answer to an ap- 
peal for mercy, that he must pay the forfeit of his life, but 
should have a long respite to prepare himself for death. Six 
weeks after his trial, [January 22d, 1552,] his execution took 
place on Tower Hill. 

Parliament soon assembled, and of the acts which at this 
time received the royal assent, a few deserve the reader's atten- 
tion. 1. Now, for the first time, was made a le- statutes to en- 

. . „ . r> t i i force the new wor- 

gal provision tor the poor. 1. It was about three ship, 
years since the composition of the Book of Common Prayer had 
been attributed by the unanimous assent of the legislature to 
" the aid of the Holy Ghost." But it was now amended, and 
an act passed by which the bishops were ordered to coerce with 
spiritual censures all persons who should absent themselves from 
the amended form of service, and the magistrates to visit with 
corporeal punishment all those who should employ any other ser- 
vice in its place. To hear, or be present at, any manner of 
divine worship, or administration of the sacraments, or ordina- 
tion of ministers, differing from those set forth by authority, 
subjected the offender on the first conviction to imprisonment 
during the space of six months, on the second during the space 
of one year, and on the third during the term of his natural life. 
The laws of treason were softened, and it was now enacted, that 
no person should be arraigned, indicted, convicted, or attainted of 
any manner of treason, unless on the oath of two lawful accusers, 



382 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1552. 



who should be brought before him at the time of his arraignment, 
and there should openly avow and maintain their charges against 
him. Thus was laid the foundation of a most important im- 
provement in the administration of criminal justice; and a 
maxim was introduced which has proved the best shield of inno- 
cence against power. 

In Ireland it had long been the object of the government to 

suppress the native language ; and to have chosen the English 

Ireland- an at- language for the vehicle of religious instruction and 

tempt to suppress re li<nous worship, would have been to authorize and 

the native Ian- ° - 1 . . 

guage. perpetuate its use. The royal advisers submitted 

to entail on themselves that reproach which they had been ac- 
customed to cast on the church of Rome, and enjoined by pro- 
clamation that the Irish should attend to the service in English, 
a language which few among them could understand. By Brown, 
the archbishop of Dublin, and four of his brethren, the order 
was cheerfully obeyed : Dowdal, archbishop of Armagh, and the 
other prelates, rejected it with scorn. The consecpience was that 
the ancient service was generally retained : the new was adopted 
in those places only where an armed force compelled its intro- 
duction. 

At this time, Cranmer had completed two works of the highest 
importance to the cause which he espoused, viz. " A Collection 
of the Articles of Religion," and, " A Code of Ecclesiastical 
Constitutions." 

Edward had inherited from his mother a weak and delicate 

constitution. In the spring of the year 1552, he was considerably 

Edward's niness: reduced by successive attacks of the measles and 

excludes Mary and the small-pox : in the latter part of the summer, 

Elizabeth from the r * ". ' 

throne, by will. a troublesome cough, the effect of imprudent ex- 
posure to the cold, terminated in an inflammation on the lungs ; 
and when the new parliament assembled, the king's weakness 
compelled him to meet the two houses at his residence of White- 
hall. Edward, who had inherited a portion of his father's ob- 
stinacy, had paid little attention to the advice of his physicians. 
In the beginning of May an unexpected improvement was ob- 
served in his health ; he promised to submit for the future to 
medical advice ; and the most flattering hopes were entertained 
of his recover}'. But, after a short and delusive interval, Edward 



1553 A. D.] EDWARD THE SIXTH. 383 

relapsed into his former weakness. The symptoms of his disor- 
der grew daily more alarming; and it became evident that his 
life could not be protracted beyond the term of a few weeks. His 
danger urged the duke of Northumberland to execute a project, 
which he had in all probability meditated for some time, of plac- 
ing the crown, in the event of the king's death, on the head of 
his own son. By act of parliament, and the will of the last 
monarch, the next heirs were the ladies Mary and Elizabeth ; but, 
as the statutes pronouncing them illegitimate had never been re- 
pealed, it was presumed that such illegitimacy might be success- 
fully opposed in bar of their claim. After their exclusion, the 
crown would of right descend to one of the representatives of the 
two sisters of Henry VIII. : Margaret, queen of Scotland, and 
Mary, queen of France. Margaret was the elder, but her de- 
scendants had been overlooked in the will of the late king, and 
the animosity of the nation against Scotland would readily induce 
it to acquiesce in the exclusion of the Scottish line. There re- 
mained then the representative of Mary, the French queen, who 
was Frances, married to Grey, formerly marquis of Dorset, and 
lately created, in favour of his wife, duke of Suffolk. But Fran- 
ces had no ambition to ascend a disputed throne, and easily con- 
sented to transfer her right to her eldest daughter Jane, the wife 
of Northumberland's fourth son, Guilford Dudley. Having ar- 
ranged his plan, the duke ventured to whisper it in the ear of the 
sick prince ; and recommended it to his approbation by a most 
powerful appeal to his religious prejudices. He was, he said, ac- 
quainted with the bigotry of his sister Mary, which had hitherto set 
at defiance both his persuasion and his authority. Were she to as- 
cend the throne, she would seize the first opportunity to undo all 
that had been done. Let him therefore make a will, let him pass 
by the lady Mary on account of illegitimacy, and the lady Eliza- 
beth, who labored under the same defect, and then entail the 
crown on the posterity of his aunt, the French queen, whose pre- 
sent descendants were distinguished by their piety and their at- 
tachment to the reformed worship. To these interested sugges- 
tions the sick prince listened with feelings of approbation, and 
wrote and executed the required will. Northumberland's next 
object was to secure the person of the princess Mary. To secure 
his prey, a letter was written by the council to Mary, requiring 



384 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1553. 



her by the king's order to repair immediately to court. Had she 
reached London, her next removal would have been to the Tower; 
but she received a friendly hint of her danger on the road, and 
hastened back to her usual residence, Kenninghall, in the county 
of Norfolk. 

At this period, the care of the king was intrusted to a female, 

whose medicines aggravated his sufferings. His physicians, 

„„ . ...,_,: when they were recalled, pronounced him to be at 

The death of Ed- * ; 1 

ward. the point of death, and on the 6tb of July, 1553, 

the king expired. 

It would be idle to delineate the character of a prince, who 
lived not till his passions could develop themselves, or his faculties 
acquire maturity. His education, like that of his 
two sisters, began at a very early age. In abili- 
ties he was equal, perhaps superior, to most boys of his years; 
and his industry and improvement amply repaid the solicitude of 
his tutors. But the extravagant praise which has been lavished 
on him by his panegyrists and admirers, must be received with 
some degree of caution. In the French and Latin letters to which 
they appeal, it is difficult to separate the composition of the pu- 
pil from the corrections of the master; and since, to raise his re- 
putation, deceptions are known to have been employed on some 
occasions, it may be justifiable to suspect that they were practised 
on others. The boy of twelve or fourteen years was accustomed 
to pronounce his opinion in the council with all the gravity of a 
hoary statesman. But he had been previously informed of the 
subjects to be discussed; his preceptors had supplied him with 
short notes, which he committed to memory ; and, while he de- 
livered their sentiments as his own, the lords, whether they were 
aware or not of the artifice, admired and applauded the precocious 
wisdom with which heaven had gifted their sovereign. Edward's 
religious belief could not have been the result of his own judg- 
ment. He was compelled to take it on trust from those about 
him, who moulded his infant mind to their own pleasure, and in- 
fused into it their own opinions or prejudices. From them he 
derived a strong sense of piety, and a habit of daily devotion, a 
warm attachment to the new, and a violent antipathy to the an- 
cient doctrines. 

During this reign, poverty and discontent generally prevailed. 



A. D. 1553.] EDWARD THE SIXTH. 385 

The extension of inclosures, and the new practice Tbo condition of 
of letting lands at rack rents, had driven from the people - 
their homes numerous families, whose fathers had occupied the 
same farms for several generations; and the increasing multitudes 
of the poor began to resort to the more populous towns in search 
of that relief which had been formerly contributed at the gates 
of the monasteries. Nor were the national morals improved, if 
we may judge from the portraits drawn by the most eminent of 
the reformed preachers. They assert that the sufferings of the 
indigent were viewed with indifference by the hard-heartedness 
of the rich; that in the pursuit of gain the most barefaced frauds 
were avowed and justified; that robbers and murderers escaped 
punishment by the partiality of juries and the corruption of 
judges ; that church livings were given to laymen, or converted 
to the use of the patrons ; that marriages were repeatedly dis- 
solved by private authority; and that the haunts of sin were mul- 
tiplied beyond measure. How far credit should be given to such 
representations, may perhaps be doubtful. Enough of proof re- 
mains to justify the conclusion that the change of religious polity, 
by removing many of the former restraints upon vice, and ener- 
vating the authority of the spiritual courts, gave a bolder front 
to licentiousness, and opened a wider scope to the indulgence of 
criminal passion. 



33 



386 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



[A. D. 1553. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. 


Scotland. 


France. 




Mary. 


Henry II. 


Julius III. 


Germany. 


Spain. 


Marcellus II. 


Charles V. 


Charlos V. 


Paul IV. 


Ferdinand. 


Philip II. 



Lady Jane Grey proclaimed queen — Execution of Northumberland — The Queen 
restores the ancient service — Elizabeth conforms — Insurrection — Elizabeth 
sent to the Tower — Mary's marriage with Philip — Reconciliation with Rome 
— Persecution of the Reformers — Departure of Philip — Death of Gardiner — 
War with France — Victory of St. Quintin's — Loss of Calais — Death and 
character of Mary — From A. D. 1553 to 155S. 

The presumptive heir to the late king was his sister Mary, a 
princess who, ever since the death of her father, had been guided 
by the advice, and under persecution had been protected by the 
remonstrances, of the emperor Charles V. 

It was on the evening of July 6, 1553, that Edward expired 
at Greenwich. With the view of concealing his death for some 

Endeavors to days from the knowledge of the public, in order to 
of Edward. gain time to strengthen opposition to Mary, the 

guards had been previously doubled in the palace, and all com- 
munication intercepted between his chamber and the other apart- 
ments. Yet that very night, while the lords sat in deliberation, 
the secret was communicated to Mary, who, without losing a mo- 
ment, mounted her horse and rode with the servants of her house- 
hold to Kenninghall, in Norfolk. 

The council broke up after midnight; and Clinton, the lord 
admiral, took possession of the Tower, with the royal treasures, 
the munitions of war, and the prisoners of state. The three next 
days were employed in making such previous arrangements as 



1553 A. D.] MARY. 887 

were thought necessary for the success of the plans of the couucil. 
On the fourth morning, it was determined to publish the result. 
The lords, attended by a numerous escort, rode to Sion House to 
announce to the lady Jane Grey that she had been appointed to 
succeed her royal cousin. 

Jane Grey has been described to us as a young woman of gen- 
tle manners, and superior talents, addicted to the study of the 
Scriptures and the classics, but fonder of dress than suited the 
austere notions of the reformed preachers. Of the 
designs of the duke of Northumberland in her 
favor, she knew nothing. Her love of privacy had induced her 
to solicit permission to leave London, and to spend a few days at 
Chelsea ; she was indulging herself in this retirement, when she 
received an order from the council to return immediately to Sion 
House, and to await there the commands of the king. She 
obeyed ; and the next morning was visited by the duke of Nor- 
thumberland and others. She was told, that the king her cousin 
was dead ; that before he expired he had named her as his lawful 
heir. She trembled, uttered a shriek, and sank to the ground. 
On her recovery she observed to those around her, that she 
seemed to herself a very unfit person to be a queen ; but that, 
if the right were hers, she trusted God would give her strength 
to wield the sceptre to his honor and the benefit of the nation. 

Jane was conducted to the Tower, the usual residence of our 
kings preparatory to their coronation. The heralds proclaimed 
the death of Edward and the succession of Jane ; 

, . , . n ,-,ii • Jane proclaimed. 

and a printed document with her signature was 
circulated, to acquaint the people with the grounds of her claim. 
To the arguments contained in this labored proclamation, the 
people listened in ominous silence, not a single voice being heard 
in approbation. The following morning arrived at the Tower a 
messenger from Mary, the bearer of a letter to the Lords, in 
which she commanded them to proclaim her accession imme- 
diately in the metropolis, and as soon as possible in all other 
parts of the kingdom. 

This communication caused no change in their counsels, for 
they considered that Mary was a single and defenceless female, 
unprepared to vindicate her right, without money and without 
followers; and they returned an answer, requiring her to abandon 



L^ 



J88 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1553 



her false claim, and to submit as a dutiful subject to her lawful 
and undoubted sovereign. 

In a few hours their illusion vanished. The mass of the peo- 
ple knew little of the Lady Jane, but all had heard of the ambi- 
The murmurs of tion of Northumberland. They said that he had 
Northumberland, persuaded Somerset to take the life of his brother, 
and Edward to take that of Somerset. The royal youth was the 
next victim. He had been removed by poison to make room for 
the Lady Jane, who, in her turn, would be compelled to yield 
the crown to Northumberland himself. These reports were be- 
lieved, and the public voice, wherever it might be expressed with 
impunity, was unanimous in favor of Mary. She was already 
joined by the earls of Bath and Sussex, and by several other 
nobles. Northumberland saw the necessity of despatch; but 
preferring not to leave the capital, he proposed to give the com- 
mand of the forces to the duke of Suffolk. But he could not 
deceive the secret partisans of Mary, who saw his perplexity, and 
to liberate themselves from his control, urged him to take the 
command upon himself. He gave a tardy and reluctant consent, 
and, as he rode through the city at the head of the troops, he re- 
marked, in a tone of despondency, "The people crowd to look 
upon us, but not one exclaims, God speed ye." 

Mary left Kenninghall; and, riding forty miles without rest, 
reached, on the same evening, the castle of Framlingham. There, 
her hopes were hourly cheered with the most gratifying intelli- 
gence. In a few days she was surrounded by more than thirty 
thousand men, all volunteers in her cause, who refused to receive 
pay, and served through the sole motive of loyalty. 

Northumberland had marched from Cambridge, in the direc- 
tion of Framlingham, and saw, as he advanced, the enthusiasm 
The triumph of °f the P e °pl e i n Mary's cause, heard that he had 
the cause of Mary, been proclaimed a rebel, and that a price had been 
fixed on his head. At Bury his heart failed him. He ordered 
a retreat to Cambridge, and wrote to the council for a numerous 
and immediate reinforcement. The lords proposed to separate, 
and hasten to the army, at the head of their respective friends 
and dependants. But this was only a pretence in order to get 
away from the Tower, where Suffolk had endeavored to keep 
them. They assembled in the city of London. The earl of 



1553 A. D.] MARY. 389 

Arundel declaimed against the ambition of Northumberland, and 
asserted the right of the two daughters of Henry VIII. The 
earl of Pembroke drew his sword, exclaiming, " This sword shall 
make Mary queen, or I will die in her quarrel." He was 
answered with shouts of approbation; and at St. Paul's Cross 
the earl of Pembroke proclaimed Mary queen, amid the deafen- 
ing acclamations of the populace. " Te Deurn" was sung in the 
cathedral; beer, wine, and money were distributed among the 
people; and the night was ushered in with bonfires, illumina- 
tions, and the accustomed demonstrations of public joy. 

The next morning the lady Jane departed to Sion House. 
Her reign had lasted but nine days ; and they had been days of 
anxiety and distress. The moment she was gone, Northumberland 
the lords, without any distinction of party, united seut t0 the Tower - 
in sending an order to Northumberland to disband his forces, and 
to acknowledge Mary for his sovereign. But he had already pro- 
claimed her, and threw his cap into the air in token of joy. He 
was arrested on a charge of high-treason by the earl of Arundel, 
and conducted, with several of his associates, to the Tower. It 
required a strong guard to protect the prisoners from the ven- 
geance of the populace. The lady Elizabeth had taken no part 
in this contest. She did not join the lady Jane, and she did 
nothing in aid of the lady Mary. Under the excuse of a real 
or feigned indisposition, she confined herself to her chamber, 
that, whichever party proved victorious, she might claim the ne- 
gative merit of non-resistance. Now, however, the contest was 
at an end : the new queen approached her capital ; and Elizabeth 
deemed it prudent to court the favor of the conqueror. At the 
head of a hundred and fifty horse, she met her at Aldgate ; and 
they rode together in triumphal procession through the streets. 
Mary ordered a dole to be distributed, of eight pence, to every 
poor householder in the city. 

Of Mary's counsellors, the chief were the bishops Gardiner 
and Tunstall, who, under her father, had been employed in offices 
of trust, and had discharged them with fidelity Mary's counsei- 
and success. The acknowledged abilities of the lor3 - 
former soon raised him to the post of prime-minister. He first 
received the custody of the seals, and was soon afterward ap- 
pointed chancellor. 

33* 



390 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1553. 

Though the queen found herself in debt from the policy of 
Northumberland, who had kept the public officers three years in 
arrear of their salaries, she issued two proclamations which drew 
upon her the blessings of the whole nation. By the first she re- 
stored the depreciated currency to its original value. By the 
other she remitted to her people, in gratitude for their attachment 
to her right, the subsidies on land and goods, which had been 
granted to the crown by the late parliament. As the time of her 

The coronation coronation approached, the queen introduced with- 
of Mary. \ n ^g palace an innovation highly gratifying to 

the younger branches of the female nobility, though it foreboded 
little good to the reformed preachers. Under Edward, their 
fanaticism had given to the court a sombre and funereal appear- 
ance. Mary appeared publicly in jewels and colored silks ; the 
ladies copied her example; and the courtiers dressed with a 
splendor that became their rank in the state. A new impulse 
was thus communicated to all classes of persons ; and consider- 
able sums were expended in preparations for the coronation. 
That ceremony was performed [30th September, 1553] after the 
ancient rite, by Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, and was con- 
cluded in the usual manner, with a magnificent banquet in West- 
minster Hall. The same day a general pardon was proclaimed, 

Trial of the pri- w * ta tue exception, by name, of sixty individuals 
soners. -^^q were accused of treasonable or seditious of- 

fences committed since the queen's accession. Mary selected out 
of the list of prisoners seven only for immediate trial; the duke of 
Northumberland, the contriver and executor of the plot, his son the 
earl of Warwick, the marquess of Northampton, Sir John Gates, 
Sir Henry Gates, Sir Andrew Dudley, and Sir Thomas Palmer, his 
principal counsellors and constant associates. It was in vain that 
she was urged to include the Lady Jane in the number. Mary 
said that she could not find in her heart or in her conscience to 
put her unfortunate cousin to death ; for that Jane was not the 
accomplice of Northumberland, but merely a puppet in his hands. 
Northumberland, Sir John Gates, and Sir Thomas Palmer were 
selected for execution. Northumberland acknowledged the jus- 

Exerution of tice of his punishment, but denied that he was 
and others. the first projector of the treason. He called on 

them to witness that he was in charity with all mankind, that 



1553 A. D.] MARY. 391 

lie died in the faith of his fathers, though ambition had induced 
him to conform in practice to a worship which he condemned in 
his heart, and that his last prayer was for the return of his coun- 
trymen to the Catholic church; for, since their departure from it, 
England, like Germany, had been a prey to dissensions, tumults, 
and civil war. 

Under the reign of Edward, Mary had spontaneously preferred 
a single life ; but from the moment of her accession to the throne, 
she made no secret of her intention to marry. Mary's intention 
She asked the advice of the emperor Charles V., t0 marr y- 
and waited with impatience for his answer. It was obviously the 
interest of Charles that she should prefer his son Philip. He was, 
however, careful not to commit himself by too hasty an answer. 
At length he proposed his son Philip, but told her not to be 
swayed by his advice; but to consult her own inclination and 
judgment. 

It was soon discovered by the courtiers that Philip had been 
proposed to the queen, and had not been rejected; and the chan- 
cellor was the first to remonstrate with his sovereign. He ob- 
served to her that her people would more readily submit to the 
rule of a native than of a foreigner. Gardiner, who spoke the 
sentiments of the majority of the council, was followed by others 
of his colleagues ; they were opposed by Norfolk, Arundel, and 
the lord Paget. 

On Mary's accession, she acquainted both the emperor and the 
king of France with her determination to restore Mary's detenni- 
the Catholic worship. Henry applauded her zeal, J^vlJ? restore 
and offered aid ; but Charles advised her to pro- ship, 
ceed with temper and caution, and to abstain from any public in- 
novation till she had obtained the consent of her parliament. She 
issued no order for the public restoration of the ancient service ; 
but she maintained that she had a right to worship God as she 
pleased within her own palace ; and was highly gratified by the 
compliance of those who followed her example. The proceedings 
against the bishops deprived in the last reign were reversed ; and 
Gardiner, Bonner, Tunstall, Heath, and Pay recovered the pos- 
session of their respective sees. A riot was, however, occasioned 
by the public celebration of mass in a church. The council re- 
primanded and imprisoned the priest; and the queen, sending for 



392 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1553. 

the lord mayor and aldermen, ordered them to put down all 
tumultuous assemblies. Mary, following the example of the last 
two rnonarchs, prohibited preaching in public without license. 
The queen declared that she could not conceal her religion, which 
God and the world knew that she had professed from her infancy; 
but she had no intention to compel any one to embrace it till fur- 
ther order were taken by common consent; and therefore she 
strictly forbade all persons to excite sedition among the people, 
or to foment dissension by using the opprobrious terms of heretic 
or papist. 

The reformers now fixed their hopes on the constancy of the 
lady Elizabeth, the presumptive heir to the throne. They already 
Elizabeth con- considered her as the rival of the cpieen ; and it 
forms - was openly said that it would not be difficult to 

transfer the sceptre to her hands. On this account it had been 
proposed by some of the royal advisers to put Elizabeth under 
arrest ; but Mary refused her assent, and rather sought to with- 
draw her from the new to the ancient worship. For some time 
the princess resisted every attempt ; but when she learned that 
her repugnance was thought to arise from the persuasions of the 
factious, she solicited a private audience, threw herself on her 
knees, and excused her past obstinacy, on the ground that she 
had never practised any other than the reformed worship. Per- 
haps, she said, if she were furnished with books, and aided by 
the instructions of divines, she might see her errors, and embrace 
the religion of her fathers. After this beginning, the reader 
will not be surprised to learn that her conversion was effected in 
the short course of a week. Mary now treated her with extraor- 
dinary kindness; and Elizabeth, to prove her sincerity, not only 
accompanied her sister to mass, but opened a chapel in her own 
house, and wrote to the emperor for leave to purchase, in Flan- 
ders, a chalice, cross, and the ornaments usually employed in the 
celebration of the Catholic worship. 

But the Protestant cause was consoled for the defection of 
Elizabeth by the zeal of Cranmer. Though he had been the au- 
Cranmer sent to tn or °^ ner mother's divorce, and one of the last 
the Tower. t abandon the conspiracy of Northumberland, he 

had not been sent to the Tower, but received an order to confine 
himself to his palace at Lambeth. Here intelligence was brought 



1553 A. D.] MARY. 393 

to him that the Catholic service had been performed in his church 
at Canterbury, and that a report was circulated of his having of- 
fered to celebrate mass before the queen. Cranmer hastened to 
refute these charges by a public denial; and in a declaration, 
which, while its boldness does honor to his courage, betrays by its 
asperity the bitterness of his feelings, asserted that the mass was 
the device and invention of the father of lies. Of this intem- 
perate declaration, several copies were dispersed and publicly read 
to the people in the streets. The council sent for the archbishop, 
and, after a long debate, committed him to the Tower. A few 
days afterward, Latimer was also sent to the same prison. 

To Julius III., the Roman pontiff, the accession of Mary had 
been a subject of triumph. Foreseeing the result, he imme- 
diately appointed Cardinal Pole his legate to the Cardinal Pole 

J ,, , ,i , • c t? XT ^Pointed le gate 

queen, the emperor, and the king oi h ranee. He to the queen, 
declined at first, and a private messenger proceeded to England, 
who procured more than one interview with Mary, and carried 
from her the message that it was her most anxious wish to see 
her kingdom reconciled with the Holy See; that for this purpose 
she meant to procure the repeal of all laws trenching on the doc- 
trine or discipline of the Catholic church; and that for the suc- 
cess of the undertaking it would be necessary to act with 'temper 
and prudence; to respect the prejudices of her subjects; and 
most carefully to conceal the least trace of any correspondence 
between her and the court of Rome. 

Such was the situation of affairs when Mary met her first par- 
liament. The two objects which she had principally at heart were, 
to remove from herself the stain of illegitimacy, Meeting of par- 
and to restore to its former ascendency the religion iiament:theresto- 

J ° ration of the an- 

of her fathers. By the council it was at first deter- cient service, 
mined to attempt both objects by a bill, which should repeal at once 
all the acts that had been passed in the two last reigns, affecting 
either the marriage between the queen's father and mother or the 
exercise of religion as it stood in the first year of Henry VIII. By 
the peers no objection was made; but opposition was organized 
among the commons; and the queen prorogued the parliament. 
In the succeeding session, two new bills were introduced in the 
place of the former; one confirming the marriage of Henry and 
Catherine, the other regulating the national worship. Against 



39-4 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1553. 



the first bill not a voice was raised in either house of parliament. 
The next measure was so framed as to elude the objections of 
those who were hostile to the pretensions of the see of Rome. It 
professed to have no other object than to restore religion to that 
state in which Edward found it on his accession. The opposition 
was confined to the lower house, and the bill passed. By it was 
at once razed to the ground that fabric which Cranmcr had erected 
in the last reign; the new liturgy was abolished; and in lieu 
thereof were revived such forms of divine worship and adminis- 
tration of sacraments as had been most commonly used in Eng- 
land in the last year of Henry VIII. 

That which now chiefly interested and agitated the public 

mind, was the project of marriage between Mary and Philip of 

Mary determines Spain. The projected alliance was unpopular. 

to marry Philip of __, \ A 1 t • * • t 

Spain. rrotestants and Catholics, postponing their reli- 

gious animosities, joined in reprobating a measure which, they said, 
would place a foreign and despotic prince on the English throne. 
The commons voted an address to the queen, in which they 
prayed her to marry, but to select her husband not from any fo- 
reign family, but from the nobility of her own realm. But the 
queen had inherited the resolution or obstinacy of her father. 
Opposition might strengthen, it could not shake her purpose. 
Sending for the imperial ambassador, she bade him follow her into 
her private oratory, where, on her knees at the foot of the altar, 
she called God to witness that she had pledged her faith to Philip, 
prince of Spain. She next sent for the lower house : the speaker 
read the address; and, when it was expected that the chancellor, 
according to custom, would answer in her name, she herself re- 
plied : that for their expression of loyalty she sincerely thanked 
them; but, in as much as they pretended to limit her in the 
choice of a husband, she thanked them not. The marriages of 
her predecessors, she observed, had always been free, nor would 
she surrender a privilege which they had enjoyed. 

Elizabeth remained at court, watched by the imperialists, and 
caressed by their opponents; one day terrified by the fear of a 
prison, and the next day flattered with the prospect of a crown. 
No pains were spared to create dissension between the royal sis- 
ters. But Mary treated Elizabeth with kindness and distinction; 
and presented her with two sets of large and valuable pearls. 



1554 A. D.] MARY. 395 

The enemies of the Spanish marriage joined in a rebellion 
against Mary, which seemed formidable. The queen ordered 
her ministers to provide the means of defence, and A revo it sup . 
undertook to fix, by her confidence and address, P ressed - 
the wavering loyalty of the Londoners. The lord mayor called 
an extraordinary meeting of the citizens; and Mary, with the 
sceptre in her hand, and accompanied by her ladies and officers 
of state, entered the Guildhall. She said that she was con- 
vinced that her people loved her too well to surrender her into 
the hands of rebels; and promised that, if it should not appear 
to the lords and commons in parliament to be for the benefit of 
the whole realm, she would never marry. The hall rang with 
acclamations; and by the next morning more than twenty thou- 
sand men had enrolled their names for the protection of the city. 
The insurgents were soon overcome, though not without a battle 
in the neighbourhood of London, in which many lives were lost. 
At the termination of the former conspiracy, the queen had per- 
mitted but three persons to be put to death — an instance of cle- 
mency, considering all the circumstances, not perhaps to be 
paralleled in the history of those ages. But the policy of her 
conduct had been severely arraigned; and now, while her mind 
was still agitated with the remembrance of her danger, she was 
induced to sign a warrant for the execution of Guilford Dudley 
and Lady Jane Grey, whose family had joined in the second re- 
bellion. On the fatal morning, the queen sent them permission 
to take a last farewell of each other; but Jane refused the indul- 
gence, saying, that in a few hours they should meet in heaven. 
From the window of her cell she saw her husband Execution of 

,1 . i i i i i i • i i t Dudley and his 

led to execution, and beheld his bleeding corpse wife, 
brought back to the chapel. He Iftid been beheaded on Tower 
Hill, in sight of an immense multitude; she, on account of her 
royal descent, was spared the ignominy of a public execution. 
With a firm step and cheerful countenance she mounted the 
scaffold, which had been erected on the green within the Tower. 
Having laid her head upon the block, at one stroke it was 
severed from the body. Her life had before been spared as a 
pledge for the loyalty of the house of Suffolk. That pledge was 
indeed forfeited by the late rebellion of the duke; but it would 



396 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1554, 



have been to the honor of Mary if she had overlooked the provo- 
cation, and refused to visit on the daughter the guilt of the 
father. Her youth ought to have pleaded most powerfully in 
her favor; and, if it were feared that she would again be set up 
by the factious as a competitor with her sovereign, the danger 
might certainly have been removed by some expedient less cruel 
than the infliction of death. 

The duke of Suffolk, lady Jane's father, fell unpitied. His 
ingratitude to the queen, his disregard of his daughter's safety, 
and his meanness in seeking to purchase forgiveness by the accu- 
sation of others, had sharpened the public indignation against 
him. 

Elizabeth was at Ashridge, laboring, or pretending to labor, 
under some severe indisposition. Much had come to light which 
Elizabeth com- tended to implicate her in the conspiracy; she re- 
Tower, fused to join the queen in the capital, which was 
imputed to consciousness of guilt rather than infirmity of body. 
The council resolved to enforce submission ; but Mary insisted 
that, at the same time, due consideration should be paid to her 
health and her rank. A very kind invitation was written to her 
by the queen, and three members of the council were ordered to 
bring her to the court. They were instructed to take with them 
two of the queen's physicians, to ascertain her ability to travel, 
and also the queen's litter for her greater convenience on the 
road. It was with the utmost reluctance that Elizabeth yielded. 
The physicians assured her that there was no danger; but a respite 
of another week was granted ; and she at last reached London in 
great state. On her arrival she asked in vain for an interview 
with the queen, and was immediately conducted to apartments 
provided for her in a quarter of the palace out of which there 
was no egress but through a passage occupied by a guard. Mary, 
however, soon grew weary of being the jailer of her sister. She 
proposed to the council that some one of the lords should take 
charge of her in a private house in the country. But no man 
was willing to incur the responsibility; and an order was made 
for her committal to the Tower. She received the intelligence 
with dismay, and most earnestly solicited permission to speak to, 
or if that could not be, to write to the queen. The last was 



1554 A. D.] MARY. 397 

granted; and in the letter said to have been written on that occa- 
sion, she maintained that she had never consented to any project 
that conld endanger the life or crown of her sister. 

In the Tower, Elizabeth abandoned herself to the most gloomy 
anticipations; she was saved from the danger by the abilities and 
good offices of one, whom it has been the fashion to describe as 
her bitterest enemy. For several weeks, Renard, the imperial 
ambassador, labored incessantly to extort the queen's consent 
that the princess should be condemned and sent to the scaffold. 
Gardiner however defended her with success. Mary sent an 
order to Elizabeth to come from the Tower by water, and join 
the court. A few days later the princess was sent forward to 
"Woodstock, which had been selected for her residence, and 
where she remained till the beginning of the next year. 

The rebellion had suspended, for a few weeks, the proceedings 
relative to the queen's marriage; but in the beginning of March 
[1554] the Spanish ambassador arrived in Lon- The marriage of 
don, and espoused Mary in the name of the Mary and Philip, 
prince of Spain. Both houses unanimously concurred in an act 
confirming the treaty of marriage, declaring that the queen, after 
its solemnization, should continue to enjoy and exercise the sove- 
reignty as sole queen, without any right or claim to be given 
unto Philip. Philip soon arrived at Southampton, escorted by 
the combined fleets of England, the Netherlands, and Spain. 
The moment he set his foot on the beach, he was invested with 
the insignia of the Order of the Garter; and instantly a royal 
salute was fired by the batteries and the ships in the harbor. 
The queen had sent him a Spanish genet, richly caparisoned; 
and, as he rode first to the church, and thence to his lodging, 
the people crowded around him to see the husband of their sove- 
reign. His youth, the grace of his person, the pleasure dis- 
played in his countenance, charmed the spectators : they saluted 
him with cries of "God save your grace;" and he, turning on 
either side, expressed his thankfulness for their congratulations. 
On the festival of St. James, the patron saint of Spain, [July 
25th,] the marriage was celebrated in the cathedral church at 
Winchester, before crowds of noblemen collected from every part 
of Christendom, and with a magnificence which has seldom been 

surpassed. From "Winchester the royal pair proceeded, by slow 

34 



398 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1555 



journeys, to Windsor and the metropolis. The city had been 
beautified at considerable expense, and the most splendid pa- 
geants were devised to welcome their arrival. 

Mary now resolved to attempt that which she had long con- 
sidered an indispensable duty, the restoration of the religious 

Reunion with polity of the kingdom to that state in which it ex- 
Kome - isted at the time of her birth. In her first par- 

liament, she had prudently confined her efforts to the public re- 
establishment of the ancient form of worship. The statute was 
carried into execution on the -appointed clay, almost without op- 
position; the married clergy, according to the provisions of the 
canon law, were removed from their benefices; and Gardiner, 
with the secret approbation of the pontiff, had consecrated Ca- 
tholic prelates to supersede the few Protestant bishops who 
remained in possession of their sees. Thus one-half of the mea- 
sure had been already accomplished; the other, the recognition 
of the papal supremacy, a more hazardous task, still remained. 
Many had shared the plunder of the church; and they ob- 
jected to the restoration of that jurisdiction which might call in 
question their right to their present possessions. It was neces- 
sary, in the first place, to free them from apprehension, and 
for that purpose to procure from the pontiff a bull confirming all 
past alienation of the property of the church. This subject had 
from the commencement been urged on the consideration of the 
court of Rome. The pope having consulted his canonists and 
divines, signed a bull empowering the legate to give to the pre- 
sent possessors, all property which had been torn from the church 
during the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. 

The parliament was soon convoked. The procession on the 
first day was opened by the commoners; the peers and prelates 
followed; and next came Philip and Mary, in robes of purple, 
the king on horseback, attended by the lords of his household, 
the queen in a litter, followed by the ladies of her establishment. 
The chancellor, having taken his place in front of the throne, 
addressed the two houses. The queen's first parliament, he said, 
had re-established the ancient worship, her second had confirmed 
the articles of her marriage; and their majesties expected that 
the third, in preference to every other object, would accomplish 
the reunion of the realm with the universal church. An act 



1555 A. D.] MARY. 399 

was passed reversing the attainder of Cardinal Pole. He imme- 
diately came to England as legate, and assured the parliament of 
every facility on his part to effect the reunion of the church of 
England with that of Rome. The motion for the reunion was 
carried almost by acclamation. It was determined to present a pe- 
tition in the name of both houses to the king and queen, stating 
that they looked back with sorrow and regret on the defection of 
the realm from the communion of the Apostolic See. Mary and 
Philip spoke to the cardinal; and he absolved all those present 
and the whole nation from all heresy; and restored them to the 
communion of holy church in the name of the Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost. "Amen," resounded from every part of the hall; 
and the members, rising from their knees, followed the king and 
cpzeen into the chapel, where Te Deurn was chanted in thanks- 
giving for the event. The next Sunday the legate, at the invi- 
tation of the citizens, made his public entry into the metropolis; 
and Gardiner preached at St. Paul's Cross the celebrated ser- 
mon, in which he lamented in bitter terms his conduct under 
Henry VIII., and exhorted all, who had fallen through his 
means, or in his company, to rise with him, and seek the unity 
of the Catholic Church. 

The decree of the legate was soon afterward published, which 
declared — 1. That all cathedral churches, hospitals, and schools 
founded during the schism, should be preserved; The decrees of 
2. That all persons, who had contracted marriage the le s ate - 
within the prohibited decrees without dispensation, should re- 
main married; 8. That all judicial processes, made before the 
ordinaries, or in appeal before delegates, should be held valid; 
and 4. That the possessors of church property should not be 
molested, under pretence of any canons of councils, decrees of 
popes, or censures of the church. An act was soon passed 
which provided that all papal bulls, dispensations, and privileges, 
not containing matter prejudicial to the royal authority, or to the 
laws of the realm, might be used in all courts whatsoever; that 
the pope should have the same authority and jurisdiction which 
he might have lawfully exercised before the twentieth year of 
the reign of Henry YIIL; and that the jurisdiction of the 
bishops should be restored to that state in which it existed at 
the same period. In the lords, the bill was read thrice in two 



400 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1555. 



days; in the commons, it was passed after a sharp debate on tli6 
third reading. Thus was re-established in England the whole 
system of religious polity which had prevailed for so many cen- 
turies before Henry VIII. 

The dissolution of the parliament was followed by an unex- 
pected act of grace. The lord chancellor, accompanied by seve- 
ral members of the council, proceeded to the Tower, called be- 
fore him all state prisoners, and informed them that the king 
and queen had ordered them to be discharged. Elizabeth reap- 
peared at court, and by the king and queen was treated with 
kindness and distinction. After a visit of some months, she re- 
turned to her own house in the country. 

Pope Julius died in 1555. The new pontiiF, who had taken 
the name of Marcellus II., died within one and twenty days; 
and the friends of Pole labored to honor him with the tiara. 
But as the cardinals, as well in the imperial as in the French 
interest, refused their voices, Caraffa was chosen, and took the 
name of Paul IV. On the very day of the coronation of this 
The embassy to pontiff, three English ambassadors reached Rome. 
Rome. p j e jjad foreseen that the new title of king and 

queen of Ireland, assumed by Philip and Mary, in imitation of 
Henry and Edward, might create some difficulty, and had there- 
fore requested that Ireland might be declared a kingdom before 
the arrival of the ambassadors. But the death of Julius, suc- 
ceeded by that of Marcellus, had prevented those pontiffs from 
complying with his advice; and the first act of the new pope, 
after his coronation, was to publish a bull, by which, at the peti- 
tion of Philip and Mary, he raised the lordship of Ireland to the 
dignity of a kingdom. Till this had been done, the ambassadors 
waited without the city; three days later they were publicly in- 
troduced. They acknowledged the pontiff as head of the uni- 
versal church, presented to him a copy of the act by which his 
authority had been re-established, and solicited him to ratify the 
absolution pronounced by the legate, and to confirm the bishop- 
rics erected during the schism. Paul received them with kind- 
ness, and granted their requests. 

It was the lot of Mary to live in an age of religious intolerance, 
when to punish the professors of erroneous doctrine was inculcated 
as a duty. The Protestants had no sooner obtained the ascend- 



1555 A. D.] 



MARY. 



401 



ency during the short reign of Edward, than 0rigin of perse . 
they displayed the same persecuting spirit which cu ^°u- 
they had formerly condemned — burning the Anabaptist, and pre- 
paring to burn the Catholic at the stake, for no other crime than 
adherence to religious opinion. By a law proposed by Cranmer, 
to believe in transubstantiation, to admit the papal supremacy, 
and to deny justification by faith only, had been severally made 
heresy ; and it was ordained that individuals accused of holding 
heretical opinions should, if they continued obstinate, be delivered 
to the civil magistrate, to suffer the punishment provided by law. 
Edward died before this code had obtained the sanction of the 
legislature : by the accession of Mary, the power of the sword 
passed from the hands of one religious party to those of the 
other ; and within a short time, Cranmer and his associates pe- 
rished in the flames which they had prepared to kindle for the 
destruction of their opponents. 

Though it had been held in the last reign that by the common 
law of the land heresy was a crime punishable with death, it was 
deemed advisable to revive the three statutes which had formerly 
been enacted to suppress the doctrines of the Lollards. An act 
for this purpose was brought into the Commons, and in the course 
of four days it had passed the two houses. 

The new year opened to the Protestant preachers with a lower- 
ing aspect, and the storm soon burst on their heads. Tbe firat vic _ 
G ardiner presided in a court which was now opened, tims - 
and was attended by thirteen other bishops, and a crowd of lords 
and knights. Six prisoners accused of heresy were called before 
them ; of whom four, Hooper the deprived bishop of Gloucester, 
Rogers a prebendary of St. Paul's, Saunders rector of Allhallows 
in London, and Taylor rector of Hadley in Suffolk, were ex- 
communicated; and their excommunication was followed by the 
delivery of the recusants to the civil power. Rogers was the first 
victim. He perished at the stake in Smithfield; Saunders under- 
went a similar fate at Coventry, Hooper at Gloucester, and Taylor 
at Hadley. An equal constancy was displayed by all : and, 
though pardon was offered them to the last moment, they scorned 
to purchase the continuance of life by feigning an assent to doc- 
trines which they did not believe. Gardiner never afterward 

took his seat on the bench, but transferred the ungracious office 

34* 



402 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1555. 

of conducting these prosecutions in the metropolis to Bonner, 
bishop of London. That prelate, accompanied by the lord mayor 
and sheriffs, and several members of the council, excommunicated 
six other prisoners, and delivered them to the civil power. But 
The sermon of * ne ues ^ ^J) Alphonso di Castro, a Spanish friar, 
the Spanish friar, confessor to Philip, preached before the court, and, 
to the astonishment of his hearers, condemned these proceedings 
in the most pointed manner. He pronounced them contrary, 
not only to the spirit, but to the text of the gospel : it was not 
by severity, but by mildness, that men were to be brought into 
the fold of Christ ; and it was the duty of the bishops, not to 
seek the death, but to instruct the ignorance of their misguided 
brethren. Men were at a loss to account for this discourse. It 
made, however, a deep impression ; the execution of the prisoners 
was suspended ; the question was again debated in the council, 
and five weeks elapsed before the advocates of severity could obtain 
permission to rekindle the fires of Smithfield. 

The bishops, in general, declined the odious task of proceeding 
against persons accused of heresy. This reluctance of the prelates 
was remarked by the lord treasurer, the marquess of Winchester, 
who complained to the council, and procured a reprimand to be 
sent to Bonner, stating that the king and queen marvelled at his 
want of zeal and diligence, and requiring him to proceed accord- 
ing to law, for the advancement of God's glory, and the better 
preservation of the peace of the realm. The prelates no longer 
hesitated, and the persecution recommenced. To describe the 
sufferings of each individual would fatigue the patience and torture 
the feelings of the reader ; the last moments of Cranmer, Ridley, 
and Latimer, however, deserve special mention. During the pre- 
ceding reign they had concurred in sending the Anabaptists to 
the stake ; in the present, they were compelled to suffer the same 
punishment which they had so recently inflicted. 

Cranmer was served, as a matter of form, with a citation to 
answer before the pontiff in the course of eighty days — a dis- 
tinction which he owed to his office of archbishop ; his com- 
The execution of Pinions, having appeared twice before the bishops 
Latimer and Ridley. f Lincoln, Gloucester, and Bristol, as commis- 
sioners of the legate, and twice refused to renounce their opinions, 
were degraded from the priesthood, and delivered to the secular 



1556 A. D.] MARY. 403 

power. At the stake, to shorten their sufferings, bags of gun- 
powder were suspended from their necks. Latimer expired almost 
the moment that the fire was kindled ; but Ridley was doomed to 
endure the most excruciating torments. The constancy with 
which they suffered consoled the sorrow and animated the zeal 
of their disciples. 

From the window of his cell, Cranmer had seen his two friends 
led to execution. At the sight, his resolution began to waver, 
and he let fall some hints of a willingness to relent Recantations of 
and of a desire to confer with the legate. But in Cranmer. 
a short time he recovered the tranquillity of his mind, and ad- 
dressed, in defence of his doctrine, a long letter to the queen, 
which at her request was answered by Cardinal Pole. At Home, 
on the expiration of the eighty days, the royal proctors demanded 
judgment; and Paul, in a private consistory, pronounced the 
usual sentence. The intelligence of this proceeding awakened 
the terrors of the archbishop. He had not the fortitude to look 
death in the face. To save his life he feigned himself a convert 
to the Catholic creed, openly condemned his past delinquency, 
and, stifling the remorse of his conscience, in seven successive 
instruments abjured the faith which he had taught, and approved 
of that which he had opposed. He professed to believe on all 
points, and particularly respecting the sacraments, as the Catholic 
Church believed. To Ridley and Latimer, life had been offered 
on condition that they should recant ; but when the question was 
put, whether the same favor might be granted to Cranmer, it was 
decided by the council in the negative. His political offences, it was 
said, might be overlooked ; but he had been the cause of the schism 
in the reign of Henry, and the author of the change of religion in 
the reign of Edward ; and such offences, it was urged, required 
that he should suffer. The writ was directed to the mayor of 
Oxford; the day of execution was fixed; still he cherished a 
hope of pardon ; and in a fifth recantation abjured the erroneous 
doctrines which he had formerly maintained. In a sixth confes- 
sion he acknowledged that he had been a greater persecutor of 
the church than Paul. He had, he said, blasphemed against the 
sacrament, had sinned against Heaven, and had deprived men of 
the benefits to be derived from the eucharist. In conclusion, he 
conjured the pope to forgive his offences against the Apostolic 



404 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 155ft 



See, and the king and queen to pardon his transgressions against 
them. Mary, however, persuaded herself, or had been persuaded 
by others, that public justice would not allow her to save him 
from the punishment to which he had been condemned. 

At length the fatal day arrived. At the appointed hour the 
procession set forward, and, on account of the rain, 
halted at the church of St. Mary, where the 
sermon was preached by Dr. Cole. Cranmer stood on a plat- 
form opposite the pulpit. At the conclusion of the sermon, he 
began to read a paper, and was heard for a time with profound 
silence. But when he recalled his former recantations, rejected 
the papal authority, and confirmed the doctrines contained in his 
book, he was interrupted by the murmurs and agitation of the 
audience. As soon as order could be restored, he was conducted 
to the stake, declaring that he had never changed his belief; that 
his recantations had been wrung from him by the hope of life ; 
and that, as his hand had offended by writing contrary to his 
heart, it should be the first to receive its punishment. When the 
fire was kindled, to the surprise of the spectators, he thrust his 
hand into the flame, exclaiming, "This hath offended." His 
sufferings were short ; the flames rapidly ascended above his head, 
aud he expired in a few moments. 

On the deprivation of Cranmer, Pole had been appointed arch- 
bishop; and his consecration took place on the day after the 
The conduct of death of his predecessor. It has been said that 
Pole - Pole hastened the death of Cranmer, that he might 

get possession of the archbishopric ; but the life of Cranmer, after 
his deprivation, could be no obstacle. The fact is, that Pole pro- 
cured several respites for Cranmer, and thus prolonged his life. 
The persecution now ceased in the diocese of Canterbury. Pole 
found sufficient exercise for his zeal in reforming the clergy, re- 
pairing the churches, and re-establishing the ancient discipline. 
But his moderation displeased the more zealous; they called in 
question his orthodoxy; and, in the last year of his life, (perhaps 
to refute the calumny,) he issued a commission within his diocese. 
Five persons were condemned; four months afterward they 
suffered, but at a time when the cardinal lay on his death-bed, 
and was probably ignorant of their fate. 

It had at first been hoped that a few of these barbarous ex- 



1558 A. D.] MARY. 405 

liibitions would silence the voices of the preachers, and check 
the diffusion of their doctrines ; but as they con- Reflections on 
tinued to promulgate their views, the persecution the P ersecutions - 
continued till the death of Mary. Sometimes milder counsels 
seemed to prevail; and on one occasion all the prisoners were 
discharged, on the easy condition of taking an oath to be true to 
God and the queen. But these intervals were short, and, after 
some suspense, the spirit of intolerance was sure to resume the 
ascendency. Any attempt at defending such persecution can 
take but little from the infamy of the measure. After every al- 
lowance, it will be found that, in the space of four years, almost 
two hundred persons perished in the flames for religious opinion ; 
a number, at the contemplation of which the mind is struck 
with horror, and learns to bless the legislation of a more tolerant 
age, in which dissent from established forms, though in some 
countries still punished with civil disabilities, is nowhere liable 
to the penalties of death. 

If any thing could be urged in extenuation of these cruelties, 
it must have been the provocation given by the reformers. The 
succession of a Catholic sovereign had deprived s ome palliation 
them of office and power; had suppressed the offered - 
English service, the idol of their affections; and had re-esta- 
blished the ancient worship, which they deemed antichristian and 
idolatrous. Disappointment imbittered their zeal; and enthu- 
siasm sanctified their intemperance. They heaped on the queen, 
her bishops, and her religion, every indecent and irritating epi- 
thet which language could supply. Her clergy could not exer- 
cise their functions without danger to their lives; a dagger was 
thrown at one priest in the pulpit; a gun was discharged at 
another; and several wounds were inflicted on a third, while he 
administered the communion in his church; and some congre- 
gations even prayed for the death of the queen. It is not 
improbable that such excesses would have considerable influence 
with statesmen who might deem it expedient to suppress sedition 
by prosecution for heresy, but there is reason to believe that the 
queen herself was not actuated so much by motives of policy as 
of conscience; and that she had imbibed the same intolerant 
opinions which Cranmer and Ridley labored to instil into the 
young mind of Edward. 



406 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 155a 

From the moment of his arrival in England, Philip had 

sought to ingratiate himself with the natives. He had con- 

Phiiip's depar- formed to the national customs, and appeared to 

ture from Eng- . ii-ii-ii • i t 

land. be delighted with the national amusements. In 

the government of the realm he appeared not to take any active 
part; and, when favors were conferred, was careful to attribute 
them to the bounty of the queen, claiming for himself no other 
merit than that of a well-wisher and intercessor. But he labored 
in vain. The antipathy of the English was not to be subdued; 
personally, indeed, he was always treated with respect, but his 
attendants met with daily insults and injuries. Under these cir- 
cumstances the king grew weary of his stay in England, and his 
secret wishes were aided by letters from his father, who, ex- 
hausted with disease and the cares of government, earnestly en- 
treated him to return; but the queen, believing herself in a 
state to give him an heir to his dominions, extorted from him a 
promise not to leave her till after her expected delivery. She 
was mistaken, however, as to the fact of pregnancy, and Philip 
departed for Flanders. He left the queen with every demonstra- 
tion of attachment, and recommended her in strong terms to the 
care of Cardinal Pole. 

The queen, considering the impoverished state of the church, 
judged it her duty to restore to it such ecclesiastical property 

Death of Gar- as during the late reigns had been vested in the 
stares unchurch crown. Gardiner died at this period. His death 
property. wag a su kject of deep regret to Mary, who lost in 

him a most able, faithful, and zealous servant. During his ill- 
ness, he edified all around him by his piety and resignation. 
His death interrupted the plans of the council. He had under- 
taken to procure the consent of parliament to the queen's plan 
of restoring the church property vested in the crown : now Mary 
herself assumed his office, and sending for a deputation from 
each house, explained her wish, and the reasons on which it was 
grounded. In the lords, the bill passed with only two dissen- 
tient voices; in the commons, though encountering considerable 
opposition, it was earned. By it a yearly revenue of about sixty 
thousand pounds was resigned by the queen, and placed at the 
disposal of the cardinal. About the same time, that the monas- 
tic bodies might not complain of neglect, Mary re-established the 



1558 A. D.] 



MARY. 



407 



Gray Friars at Greenwich, the Carthusians at Sheen, and the 
Brigittins at Sion. The dean and prebendaries of Westminster 
retired on pensions, and yielded their places to a colony of 
twenty-eight Benedictine monks. In addition, the house of the 
Knights of St. John arose from its ruins. But these renewed 
establishments fell again on the queen's demise; her hospital at 
the Savoy being alone suffered to remain. While Gardiner 
lived, his vigilance had checked the intrigues of the factious : 
his death emboldened them to renew their machinations against 
the government. Secret meetings were now held; defamatory 
libels on the king and queen, printed on the continent, were 
found scattered in the streets, in the palace, and in both houses 
of parliament; and reports were circulated that Mary, hopeless 
of issue to succeed her, had determined to settle the crown on 
her husband after her decease. A new conspi- cieobury's con- 
racy was formed, which had for its object to de- s P irac y- 
pose Mary, and to raise Elizabeth to the throne. The conspira- 
tors reported that Philip devoted to Spanish purposes the revenue 
of the English crown; though at the same time they knew that, 
on different occasions, he had brought an immense mass of trea- 
sure into the kingdom, of which one portion had been distri- 
buted in presents, another had served to defray the expenses of 
the marriage, and the remainder, amounting to fifty thousand 
pounds, was still lodged in the Exchequer. A plan was devised 
to surprise the guard, and to obtain possession of this money; 
but one of the conspirators proved a traitor to his fellows ; of the 
others, several, apprehended by his means, paid the forfeit of 
their lives, and many sought and obtained an asylum in France. 
Among the prisoners apprehended in England, were two officers 
in the household of Elizabeth, from whose confessions much was 
elicited to implicate the princess herself. She was rescued from 
danger by the interposition of Philip, who, despairing of issue by 
his wife, foresaw that, if Elizabeth were removed out of the way, 
the English crown, at the decease of Mary, would be claimed by 
the young queen of Scots, the wife of the dauphin of France. 
By his orders the inquiry was dropped, and Mary, sending to her 
sister a ring in token of her affection, professed to believe that 
Elizabeth was innocent. The exiles in France soon made a new 
attempt to excite an insurrection. There was among them a 



408 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1558 



young man, of the name of Cleobury, who landed in Sussex, was 
taken, and suffered at Bury the penalty of his treason. Though 
Cleobury had employed the name of Elizabeth, we have no rea- 
son to charge her with participation in the imposture. The 
council pretended, at least, to believe her innocent; and she her- 
self, in a letter to Mary, expressed her detestation of all such 
attempts. She resolved, however, to seek an asylum in France, 
but was dissuaded from this course. From that period, the 
princess resided, apparently at liberty, but in reality under the 
eyes of watchful guardians, in her house at Hatfield, and occa- 
sionally at court. 

Mary finding political difficulties increasing, urged Philip to 
return without delay. But he, to whom his father had resigned 
all his dominions in Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands, was over- 
whelmed with business of more importance to him than the tran- 
quillity of his wife or of her government; and, to pacify her mind, 
he made her frequent promises, the fulfilment of which it was 

I'Miip returns always in his power to elude. In March, 1557, 
■with trance. he revisited Maiy, not so much in deference to 

her representations, as to draw England into a war with 
France. A proclamation was issued, containing charges against 
the French monarch, which it was not easy to refute. From 
the very accession of Mary he had put on the appearance of a 
friend, and acted as an adversary. He had approved of the re- 
bellion of Northumberland and other English rebels. Henry of 
France, when he heard of the proclamation, determined to op- 
pose to it a manifesto, in which he complained that Mary had 
maintained spies in his dominions, and had laid new and heavy 
duties on the importation of French merchandise. 

Philip returned to Flanders, where mercenaries from Ger- 
many and the troops from Spain had already arrived. The 
earl of Pembroke followed at the head of seven thousand Eng- 
lishmen; and the command of the combined army, consisting of 
forty thousand men, was assumed by Philibert, duke of Savoy. 
The English fleet rode triumphant through the summer, and 
kept the maritime provinces of France in a state of perpetual 
alarm. 

When Mary determined to aid her husband against Henry, 
she had made up her mind to a war with Scotland. In that 



1558 A. D.] MARY. 409 

kingdom the national animosity against the English, the ancient 
alliance with France, the marriage of the queen to the dauphin, 
and the authority of the queen-regent, a French princess, had 
given to the French interest a preponderance. The Scotch, to 
please France, ravaged the North of England; they soon, how- 
ever, assembled in council, and reminding each other of the fatal 
field of Flodden, the army was disbanded 

The king of France next resolved to besiege Calais. In the 
month of December, 1558, twenty-five thousand men, with a 
numerous train of battering artillery, assembled 
near that fortress. The governor, Lord Went- 
worth, had received repeated warning to provide for the defence 
of the place, but he persuaded himself that the object of the ene- 
my was not conquest, but plunder. A company of Frenchmen 
waded across the haven, and the French standard was soon un- 
furled on the walls. The nest morning an offer of capitulation 
was made; and the town, with all the ammunition and mer- 
chandise, was surrendered, on condition that the citizens and 
garrison should have liberty to depart, with the exception of 
Wentworth himself and of fifty others. Thus in the depth of 
winter, and within the short lapse of three weeks, was Calais, 
with all its dependencies, recovered by France, after it had re- 
mained in the possession of the English more than two hundred 
years. 

The queen felt the event most poignantly; and we may form a 
notion of her grief from the declaration which she made on her 
death-bed, that if her breast were opened after The grief of Mary, 
death, the word " Calais" would be found engraven Tho J°y in Frauce - 
on her heart. The ministers prepared an armament sufficiently 
powerful to surprise some port on the French coast, as an equiva- 
lent for that which had been lost. During the spring, seven 
thousand men were levied, and trained to military evolutions; 
the lord admiral collected in the harbor of Portsmouth a fleet of 
one hundred and forty sail; and Philip willingly supplied a strong 
reinforcement of Flemish troops. In France the capture of Ca- 
lais had excited an intoxication of joy. The event had been 
celebrated by the nuptials of the dauphin to the young queen of 
Scotland. The lord admiral, instead of proceeding immediately to 
his destination, amused himself with making a descent on Con- 

2A o- 



410 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [1558 A. D. 



quest, in Bretagne. He burnt the town, and plundered the ad- 
jacent villages; but, in the mean time, the alarm was given; 
troops poured from all quarters into Brest; and his fears or his 
prudence induced him to return to England, without having done 
any thing to raise the reputation of the country, or to repay the 
expenses of the expedition. 

The reign of Mary was now hastening to its termination. Her 
health had always been delicate, and from the time of her first 

Mary's lnst «ck- supposed pregnancy she was afflicted with frequent 
ness and death. maladies. Nor was her mind more at ease than 
her body. The exiles from Geneva, by the number and virulence 
of their libels, kept her in a constant state of fear and irritation; 
and to other causes of anxiety, which have been formerly men- 
tioned, had lately been added the loss of Calais. In August she 
experienced a slight febrile indisposition at Hampton Court, and 
immediately removed to St. James's, where she languished for 
three months. During this long confinement, Mary edified all 
around her by her cheerfulness, her piety, and her resignation to 
the will of Providence. Her chief solicitude was for the stability 
of that Church which she had restored; and her suspicions of 
Elizabeth's insincerity prompted her to require from her sister an 
avowal of her real sentiments. In return, Elizabeth complained 
of Mary's incredulity. She said that she was a true and con- 
scientious believer in the Catholic creed; nor could she do 
more now than she had repeatedly done before, which was to 
confirm her assertion with her oath. 

On the morning of Mary's death, mass was celebrated in her 
chamber. She was perfectly sensible, and expired a few minutes 
before the conclusion. Her friend and kinsman, Cardinal Pole, 
who had long been confined with a fever, survived her only 
twenty-two hours. He had reached his fifty-ninth, she her forty- 
second year. 

The foulest blot on the character of this queen is her long and 
cruel persecution of the Protestants. The sufferings of the vic- 
tims naturally begat an antipathy to the woman by 
whose authority they were inflicted. It is, how- 
ever, but fair to recollect that the extirpation of erroneous doc- 
trine was inculcated as a duty by the leaders of every religious 
party. Mary only practised what all taught. It was her mis- 



1558 A. D.] MARY. 41 1 

fortune, rather than her fault, that she was not more enlightened 
than the wisest of her contemporaries. With this exception, she 
has been ranked, by the more moderate of the Protestant writers, 
among the best, though not the greatest, of our sovereigns. They 
have borne honorable testimony to her virtues, and have allotted 
to her the praise of piety and clemency, of compassion for the 
poor, and liberality to the distressed. It is acknowledged that 
her moral character was beyond reproof. It extorted respect 
from all, even from the most virulent of her enemies. The ladies 
of her household copied the conduct of their mistress; and the 
decency of Mary's court was often mentioned with applause by 
those who lamented the dissoluteness which prevailed in that of 
her successor. The cmeen was thought by some to have inherited 
the obstinacy of her father; but there was this difference, that, 
before she formed her decisions, she sought for advice and in- 
formation, and made it an invariable rule to prefer right to expe- 
diency. Her natural abilities had been improved by education. 
She understood the Italian, she spoke the French and Spanish 
languages; and the ease and correctness with which she replied 
to the foreigners who addressed her in Latin, excited their admi- 
ration. Her speeches in public, and from the throne, were 
delivered with grace and fluency. 

Neither were the interests of trade neglected during her 
government. She had the honor of concluding the first com- 
mercial treaty with Russia. The Russian trade fully compensated 
the queen and the nation for these efforts and expenses; and the 
woollen cloths and coarse linens of England were exchanged at an 
immense profit for the valuable skins and furs of the northern 
regions. 

Ireland, during this reign, offers but few subjects to attract 
the notice of the reader. The officers of government were care- 
ful to copy the proceedings in England. They first Ireland during 
proclaimed the lady Jane, and then the lady her rei s n - 
Mary. They suffered the new service to fall into desuetude; 
Dowdall resumed the archbishopric of Armagh ; the married pre- 
lates and clergy lost their benefices; and Bale, the celebrated 
bishop of Ossory, who had often endangered his life by his vio- 
lence and fanaticism, had the prudence to withdraw to the con- 
tinent. When the Irish parliament met, it selected most of its 



412 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



[A. D. 1558. 



enactments from the English statute-book. The legitimacy and 
right of the queen were affirmed, the ancient service restored, and 
the papal authority acknowledged. But though the laws against 
heresy were revived, they were not carried into execution. The 
lord deputy, the earl of Sussex, distinguished himself by the 
vigor of his government. He recovered from the native Irish the 
two districts of Offally and Leix, which he moulded into counties, 
and named King's County and Queen's County, in honor of 
Philip and Mary. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



€l^M(r. 



CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. 
Paul IV. 
Pius IV. 
Pius V. 
Gregory XIII. 
Sixtus V. 
Urban VII. 
Gregory XIV. 
Innocent IX. 
Clement VIII. 



Scotland. 
Mary. 
James VI. 

Germany. 
Ferdinand. 
Maximilian. 
Rodolph. 



France. 
Henry II. 
Francis II. 
Charles IX. 
Henry III. 
Henry IV. 

Spain. 
Philip II. 
Philip III. 



Accession of Elizabeth — Abolition of Catholic worship — War in Scotland — Re- 
turn of Mary Stuart — Elizabeth's suitors — Penal statutes — Thirty-nine Arti- 
cles — Queen of Scotland marries Darnley — Assassination of Rizzio : of 
Darnley — Mary marries Bothwell — The misfortunes of Mary — She seeks an 
asylum in England — Persecution of the Puritans : the Catholics — Plots for 
the liberation of Mary Stuart — Proceedings against Mary — Her trial and 
execution — Philip of Spain determines to invade England — The sailing of the 
Armada — Transactions in Ireland — Rebellion of Tyrone — Declining health 
of the Queen — Her death and character — A. D. 1558 to 1603. 

Elizabeth ascended the throne without opposition. Imme- 
diately after Mary's death a deputation of the council repaired to 



A. D. 1558.] ELIZABETH. 4U 



her residence at Hatfield. She received them Elizabeth as- 

, , , . , 1 , • t i • cends the throne : 

courteously, and to their congratulations replied in her council. 
a formal and studied discourse. Sir William Cecil was ap- 
pointed secretary; and the queen with his aid named the mem- 
bers of her council. Of the advisers of Mary she retained those 
who were distinguished for their capacity, or formidable by their 
influence ; and to these she added eight others, who had shown 
attachment to her in her troubles. There was another and secret 
cabinet, consisting of Cecil and his particular friends, who pos- 
sessed the ear of the queen, and controlled through her every 
department in the state. 

During the reign of her sister, Elizabeth had professed herself 
a convert to the ancient faith. The Catholics were willing to 
believe that her conformity arose from conviction ; the Protest- 
ants, while they lamented her apostasy, persuaded The conduct of 

, , , i n • i • i • i . ' i. i Elizabeth in mat- 

themselves that she feigned sentiments which she ters of religion, 
did not feel. It is probable that, in her own mind, she was in- 
different to either form of worship; but her ministers, whose 
prospects depended on the change, urged their mistress to put 
down a religion which proclaimed her illegitimate, and to support 
the reformed doctrines, which alone could give stability to her 
throne. After some hesitation, Elizabeth complied ; but a reso- 
lution was adopted to suppress all knowledge of the intended 
measure, till every precaution had been taken to insure its 
success. 

Elizabeth, by the ambiguity of her conduct, contrived to 
balance the hopes and fears of the two parties. She con- 
tinued to assist, and occasionally to communicate, at mass; she 
buried her sister with all the solemnities of the Catholic ritual ; 
and she ordered a solemn dirge, and a mass of requiem, for the 
soul of the emperor Charles V. By degrees, how- The alarm of the 
ever, the secret of the intended change of religion bish °P s - 
wa3 suffered to transpire. White, bishop of Winchester, was 
imprisoned for his sermon at the funeral of Queen Mary, and 
Bonner, bishop of London, was called upon to account for the 
different fines which had been levied in his courts during the last 
reign. Archbishop Heath either received a hint, or deemed it 
prudent, to resign the seals, which, with the title of lord keeper, 
were transferred to Sir Nicholas Bacon. But that which cleared 



414 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1559. 



away every doubt was a proclamation, forbidding the clergy to 
preach, and ordering the Catholic worship to be observed " until 
consultation might be had in parliament by the queen and the 
three estates." Alarmed by this clause, the bishops assembled 
in London, and declared that they could not in conscience officiate 
at the coronation of a princess, who, it was probable, might ob- 
ject to some part of the service; and who, if she did not refuse 
to take, certainly meant to violate, that part of the oath which 
bound the sovereign to maintain the liberties of the church. 
The question was put, and was unanimously resolved in the ne- 
gative. 

This unexpected determination of the prelates created consider- 

Coronation of a ^ e embarrassment. Many expedients were de- 
Eiizabeth. vised to remove or surmount the difficulty; and 

at last the bishop of Carlisle separated himself from his col- 
leagues. He was prevailed upon to crown the queen, and she on 
her part was compelled to take the accustomed oath, to receive 
the sacrament under one kind, and to conform to all the Catholic 
rites. 

But Cecil soon completed his arrangements. On the 25th of 
January, 1559, the queen assisted in state at a solemn high mass, 
which was followed by a sermon from Dr. Cox, a Protestant 
preacher. The lord keeper then opened the parliament in her 
presence. He first drew a melancholy picture of the state of the 
realm under Queen Mary, and next exhibited the cheering pros- 
pect of the blessings which awaited it under the new sovereign. 

Before the commons proceeded to any other business, they 
voted an address to the queen, praying that she would marry. 
She thanked them, but said that she preferred a single life. 

An act was passed, which without reversing the attainder of 
Anne Boleyn, restored Elizabeth in blood, and rendered her in- 

Acts of pariia- heritable to her mother, and to all her ancestors 
Tension™ * on the part of her said mother. But the subject 

which principally occupied the attention of parliament was the 
alteration of religion. It was enacted that the Book of Common 
Prayer, with certain additions and emendations, should alone be 
used by all ministers ; and that the spiritual authority of every 
foreign prelate within the realm should be utterly abolished. It 
next devolved on the queen to provide a new hierarchy for the 



15G0 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 415 

English Church. She first sent for the bishops then in London, 
and required them to conform ; but they refused, and being de- 
prived of their bishoprics, were committed to custody. After 
the consecration of new bishops, there was little to impede the 
progress of the reformed worship. The oath of supremacy was 
tendered by them to the clergy of their respective dioceses ; but 
in general it was refused. 

The restoration of Calais was a matter forming, at this time, a 
ground of negotiation. It was agreed that the French king 
should retain possession during the next eight years ; and that 
at the expiration of the term he should restore the town with its 
dependencies to Elizabeth. It was evident, however, that at the 
expiration of eight years, French ingenuity would easily discover 
some real or pretended infraction of the treaty, on which the king 
might ground his refusal to restore the place. This consequence 
was foreseen by the public ; and the terms were therefore con- 
demned as prejudicial and disgraceful. 

Mary Stuart had now completed her fifteenth year. She was 
married to the dauphin Francis, a prince of nearly the same age, 
in the cathedral of Paris; he was immediately 
saluted by his consort with the title of king-dau- 
phin ; and to cement the union of France and Scotland, the na- 
tives of each country were by legislative acts naturalized in the 
other. 

A war on the subject of religion raged for a long time in Scot- 
land, the details of which possess little interest. John Knox 
led the party of the new creed, and Elizabeth, though personally 
disliking Knox, aided his friends. This reflected little credit on 
Elizabeth, and still less on the character of her advisers; for the 
right of intervention, even in its most liberal acceptation, can 
never authorize one prince to intrigue clandestinely with the sub- 
jects of another. 

Francis, a weak and sickly prince, died in 1560. By this event, 
the near connection between France and Scotland was dissolved, 
and Mary persuaded herself that she might assume Death of Francis. 

. , i • r> i • Mary returns to 

without molestation the government ot her native Scotland, 
kingdom. Such, however, was not the design of the English 
ministry. They were aware that she might marry a second time, 
and that with a new husband her former pretensions might re- 



416 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1560. 



vive, a contingency against which it was their duty to provide. 
With this view a resolution was taken to prevent, or at least to 
retard, the return of Mary Stuart to Scotland. Mary had been 
left a widow at the age of eighteen. She spent the winter among 
her maternal relatives in Lorrain, and consoled her grief by writ- 
ing elegies on her departed husband. Having spent a few days 
with the French royal family at St. Germain en Laye, she pro- 
ceeded to Calais in great state; whence she sailed in a short time, 
with two galleys and four transports, accompanied by three of her 
uncles and many French and Scottish noblemen. As long as the 
coast remained in view, she fixed her eyes on the land in which 
she had lived from her childhood and had reigned as queen; 
then, stretching out her arms, exclaimed, "Farewell, beloved 
France, farewell. Never shall I see thee more." On the fourth 
day, Mary approached the land of her fathers with mingled emo- 
tions of hope and apprehension. To disappoint the machinations 
of her enemies, she had arrived a fortnight before the appointed 
time. No preparations were made for her reception, but the 
whole population, nobles, clergy, and people, poured to Leith to 
testify their allegiance to their young and beautiful sovereign. 
Her fears were dispelled : with a glad and lightsome heart she 
mounted her palfrey; and entered the capital amid the shouts 
and congratulations of her subjects. 

We may now call the attention of the reader to the private 
history of Elizabeth in the commencement of her reign. There 
The private his- were many, both among foreign princes and native 
be"/ various b suiti subjects, whose vanity or ambition aspired to the 
ors - honor of marrying the queen of England. Of 

foreign princes the first was Philip of Spain ; but as he received 
an answer he deemed equivalent to a refusal, he turned his eyes 
toward Isabella of France, by whom his offer was accepted. The 
place of Philip was supplied by his cousin Charles of Austria, son 
to the emperor Ferdinand; but difficulties connected with religion 
interfered with this alliance: and John, duke of Finland, next 
solicited the hand of the queen for hi3 brother Eric, king of 
Sweden. He was received with royal honors, and flattered with 
delusive hopes, but his suit did not succeed, and he consoled him- 
self for his disappointment by marrying a lady who, though un- 



15G2A.D.] ELIZABETH. 417 

equal in rank to Elizabeth, could boast of superior beauty and 
repaid his choice by the sincerity of her attachment. 

The next suitor was Adolphus, duke of Holstein. The prince 
was young and handsome. On his arrival he was received with 
honor, and treated with peculiar kindness. He loved and was 
beloved. The queen made him knight of the Garter; she grant- 
ed him a pension for life; still she could not be induced to take 
him for her husband. The earl of Arran next aspired to Eliza- 
beth's hand. During the war of the Keformation he had dis- 
played courage and constancy. To the deputies of the Scottish 
convention, who urged his suit, Elizabeth, with her usual affecta- 
tion, replied, that she was content with her maiden state, and 
that God had given her no inclination for marriage. Yet the 
sudden departure of the ambassadors deeply offended her pride. 
She complained that while kings and princes persevered for 
months and years in their suit, the Scots did not deign to urge 
their requests a second time. 

The man who made the deepest and most lasting impression on 
Elizabeth's heart, was the lord Robert Dudley, who had been at- 
tainted with his father, the duke of Northumber- D UC n ey aml Eli . 
land, for the attempt to remove Elizabeth as well zabeth - 
as Mary from the succession. He had, however, been restored 
in blood, and frequently employed by the late queen ; under the 
present he met with rapid preferment, was appointed master of 
the horse, and soon afterward, to the surprise of the public, in- 
stalled knight of the Garter. The queen and Dudley became in- 
separable companions. Scandalous reports were whispered and 
believed at home ; in foreign courts it was openly said they lived 
together in criminal intercourse. Dudley had married Amy, the 
daughter and heiress of Sir John Robesart ; but that lady was 
not permitted to appear at court. Her sudden death provoked 
the injurious suspicion that his impatience of waiting had 
prompted him to make away with his wife. It was believed that 
the queen at this period solemnly pledged her word to Dudley ; 
and even a lady of the bed-chamber was named as witness to the 
contract. 

At this time, religious rancor had caused the flames of war to 
burst out in every province in France. Each party displayed a 



418 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1562. 



most ferocious spirit, and the most inhuman atrocities were daily 
perpetrated by men who professed to serve under 
the banners of religion, and for the honor of the 
Almighty. 

A treaty was concluded between Elizabeth (although she was 
the ally of Charles IX.) and the prince of Conde, a subject in 
arms against that sovereign, and one of the principal leaders of 
the Protestant party. She engaged to advance money and to land 
an army on the coast of Normandy, and Conde was to surrender 
into her hands the town of Havre de Grace, to be detained by 
her as a security, not only for the repayment of the money, but 
also for the restoration of Calais. 

The English fleet sailed to the coast of Normandy, Havre and 
Dieppe were delivered to the queen ; and the new earl of War- 
wick, the brother of the lord Robert Dudley, was 

France invaded. ..-, •, • i • /? p . i -pi ti 

appointed commander-in-cniei ot the .hnghsn army 
in France. Fired with resentment, the French nobility hastened 
to the royal army from every province ; and to animate their ex- 
ertions, Charles, the queen regent, and the king of Navarre re- 
paired to the camp before Rouen. The city was taken by assault, 
and abandoned, during eight days, to the fury of a victorious soldiery. 
Elizabeth sent reinforcements to the earl of Warwick, commis- 
sioned Count Oldenburgh to levy twelve thousand men in Ger- 
many, and ordered public prayers during three 
ena ac spassec. c | a .^ to i m p] ore the blessing of Heaven upon her 
cause, and that of the gospel. She soon afterward obtained a 
grant from Parliament to aid in carrying on the war in France. 
An act highly penal against the professors of the ancient faith 
was passed in this year. By the law, as it already stood, no heir hold- 
ing of the crown could get legal possession of his lands, no indivi- 
dual could obtain preferment in the church, or accept office under 
the crown, or become member of either university, unless he had 
previously taken the oath of supremacy, which was deemed equi- 
valent to a renunciation of the Catholic creed. The new act ex- 
tended to many others the obligation of taking the oath, and made 
the first refusal an offence, punishable by premvnire, the second 
by death, as in case of treason. It is manifest that if this bar- 
barous statute had been strictly carried into execution, the scaf- 



1562 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 419 



folds in every part of the kingdom would have been drenched 
with the blood of the sufferers ; but the queen was appalled at the 
prospect before her, and she admonished the bishops, who had 
been appointed to administer the oath, to proceed with lenity and 
caution. 

When the convocation assembled, matters were submitted to 
its deliberation of the highest importance to the new church, viz. 
an adequate provision for the lower order of the The T hj r ty- n me 
clergy, a new code of ecclesiastical discipline, and Articl es. 
the promulgation of a creed to be considered by Protestants the 
future standard of English orthodoxy. The Thirty-nine Articles, 
as they now exist, were drawn up at this period. 

The hope of recovering Calais was one of the chief baits by 
which the queen had been drawn into the war between the French 
Huguenots and their sovereign. Her ministers had predicted the 
restoration of that important place ; the prince of Conde had 
promised to support her demand with his whole power; and the 
admiral, Coligny, confirmed the engagement made by the prince. 
It was soon seen how little reliance could be placed Toleration of re- 

t /. i . , n ,, . , ligion granted in 

upon men who lought only tor their own emolu- France, 
ment. The duke of Guise was assassinated. Conde aspired to 
the high station in the government to which he was entitled as 
first prince of the blood ; and the Catholics feared that the Eng- 
lish, with the aid of Coligny, might make important conquests 
in Normandy. The leaders on both sides, anxious for an accom- 
modation, met, were reconciled, and subscribed a treaty of peace, 
by which the French Protestants promised their services to the 
king as true and loyal subjects, and obtained in return an amnesty 
for the past, and the public exercise of their religion for the 
future. 

Elizabeth received the intelligence with surprise and anger. In 
her public declarations, she had hitherto professed to hold the 
town of Havre in trust for the king of France ; but A conference 
now, when he required her to withdraw her forces, °P ened - 
she replied that she would continue to hold it as a security for the 
restoration of Calais. She continued inexorable, till she saw 
that both parties, the Huguenots as well as the Catholics, had de- 
termined to unite and expel the English troops from the soil of 
France. Conferences were opened; but no mention was made 



420 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1563. 

of the restitution of Calais to England. The one party would 
not suifer it ; the other dared not urge it, because Elizabeth had 
forfeited her claim to the recovery of the place by landing a hos- 
tile army in France. But she still had in her power the French 
hostages, and their bonds for the sum of five hundred thousand 
crowns. After a long discussion it was agreed that the hostages 
should be released ; and that the queen should be content to re- 
ceive payment of one-fourth of her original demand. 

Here we may return to the transactions between the English 
and Scottish queens. When Mary took possession of her paternal 
throne, she was aware that from France, distracted as it was by 
civil and religious dissension, she could derive no support; and 
therefore had determined, with the advice of her uncles, to sub- 
due by conciliation, if it were possible, the hostility of her former 
opponents. The lord James, her illegitimate brother, and Maitland, 
the apostate secretary, both high in the confidence of the " Con- 
gregationalists," or Protestant party, and both pensioners of the 
English queen, were appointed her principal ministers; the friend- 
ship of Elizabeth was sought by compliments and professions of at- 
tachment ; and an epistolary correspondence was established be- 
tween the two queens. 

In a few months, the jealousy or policy of Elizabeth was called 

into action by a communication from Mary, stating that she had 

Proposal of mar- received a proposal of marriage from the archduke 

riage from Charles _, . » i . • nn .1 

of Austria. Charles of Austria. 1 lie announcement put to the 

test all the ingenuity of Cecil. To prevent the match, he devised 
two plans, which were instantly carried into effect. By the first, 
Elizabeth was again brought forward as a rival to Mary. Cecil 
applied to the duke of "Wirtemberg; and that prince, as if of 
himself, solicited the emperor to make a second offer of his son 
to the English queen. But Ferdinand replied, that he had once 
been duped by the selfish and insincere policy of Elizabeth, and 
that he would not expose himself to similar treatment a second 
time. The other plan was to induce Mary, by threats and pro- 
mises, to refuse the archduke. Elizabeth proposed that Mary 
should marry Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester; but she refused, 
as Elizabeth evidently expected. In a short time the lord Darn- 
ley was set up. Darnley was the eldest son of the countess of 
Lennox ; and it was represented to Mary that a marriage with 



1565 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 421 



him could not be degrading, since he was sprung by his father 
from the kings of Scotland, by his mother from those of England. 
Mary appeared to listen to this proposal with a willing ear ; and 
the intelligence was immediately conveyed to Elizabeth. The 
matter hung in suspense till Elizabeth, to the surprise of most 
men, though she had at first refused, allowed Darnley to proceed 
to the Scottish court with letters of recommendation. Mary ac- 
cepted Darnley, but strange to say, this announcement irritated 
the English queen ; and a letter was forwarded to Mary, describ- 
ing the inconveniences and impolicy of the marriage. Mary said 
that she had pledged her word, but would defer the ceremony for 
three months. 

Elizabeth then sent agents to excite a rebellion in Scotland. 
Mary summoned the Scottish nobles to meet her at Perth : Mur- 
ray and his friends refused to obey. She received Mary marries 
secret advice that it was the intention of the dis- 156™ ey ' u y ' 
contented lords to make her their prisoner, with Lennox and 
Darnley ; but she defeated their object. Mary now, to free her- 
self from the state of uncertainty in which she had so long lived, 
privately married Darnley. 

Both parties soon began to prepare for the approaching struggle. 
The lords met at Stirling, and subscribed a bond to stand by each 
other : a messenger was despatched the next day to Elizabeth, to 
solicit speedy and effectual aid. Mary immediately acknowledged 
her choice of Darnley. She ordered the banns to be published, 
created him duke of Albany, and was married openly to him in 
the chapel of Holyrood House, by the bishop of Brechin. Pro- 
clamation was made that he should be styled king during the time 
of their marriage, and that all writs should run in the joint names 
of Henry and Mary, king and queen of Scotland. He was in 
his twentieth, she had reached her twenty-third year. 

The associated lords receiving no aid from England, were 
unable to withstand the superior force of the royalists, and they 
retired, some toward Ayr, some toward Argyleshire. The rebel 
force soon disbanded, and Murray was allowed to proceed to Lon- 
don. At first Elizabeth refused to see him ; afterward he was 
admitted in presence of the French and Spanish ambassadors, 
when, falling on his knees, he acknowledged that the queen was 

36 



422 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1565 

innocent of the conspiracy, and had never advised them to dis- 
obey their sovereign lady. 

Elizabeth was now actively employed in seeking a husband for 
herself. From whatever cause her former repugnance had sprung, 
Elizabeth desires ** was at l en g tn subdued by the danger from the 
to marry. claim of the Scottish queen, if that princess should 

have issue while she herself remained childless. But she found 
it more easy to determine to marry, than to fix on the choice of a 
husband, and so she still remained single. 

Mary, in the ardor of her affection, had overlooked the defects 
in the character of Darnley. Experience convinced her that he 
The ambition of was capricious in his temper, violent in his pas- 
Damiey. sions, and implacable in his resentments. He had 

already contracted habits of inebriety, which led him occasionally 
into the most scandalous excesses, and made him forget, even in 
public, the respect due to his consort. But his ambition proved 
to her a source of more bitter disquietude. She had summoned 
a parliament for the twofold purpose of attainting the most guilty 
of the fugitive rebels, and of granting liberty of conscience for 
those among her subjects who, like herself, professed the ancient 
faith. Darnley insisted that a matrimonial crown should be 
granted to himself, but Mary refused ; and the discontented prince 
directed his resentment against those whom he supposed to be her 
advisers, and particularly against David Riccio, one of her secre- 
taries, a native of Piedmont, who had come to Scotland in the 
suite of the ambassador of Savoy. 

Many of the Scotch viewed Riccio with hostility. He was a 
stranger and a Catholic ; two qualities calculated to excite the 
The assassination jealousy both of the courtiers and of the preachers. 
ofhiccio. Maitland, observing the discontent of the king, 

suggested to him that Mary had transferred her affections to Ric- 
cio ; and that the refusal of the matrimonial crown had proceeded 
from the advice of that minion. On Saturday, March 9, 1566, 
between seven and eight in the evening, eighty armed men took 
possession of the gates of Holyrood palace. Mary, who was in- 
disposed and in the seventh month of her pregnancy, was at the 
time seated at supper in the closet of her bed-chamber with her 
illegitimate brother and sister. Riccio, Erskine, captain of the 
guard, and Beaton, master of the household, were in attendance. 



1566 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 423 



Suddenly the king entered by a private staircase, and placing 
himself next the queen, put his arm round her waist. He was 
followed by Ruthven and others armed. Mary, alarmed at the 
sight of Ruthven, commanded him to quit the room, under the 
penalty of treason ; but he replied, that his errand was with 
David; and the unfortunate secretary, exclaiming " Justitia, jus- 
titia !" sprang for protection behind his sovereign. Her prayers 
and gestures were despised. The table was thrown over in the 
struggle ; and the assassins, dragging their victim through the 
bed-chamber, despatched him in the adjoining room with no fewer 
than fifty-six wounds. The following morning, the chiefs of the 
conspirators sat in secret consultation ; and it was resolved to 
confine the queen in the castle of Stirling till she should consent 
to approve in parliament of the late proceedings, and to give to 
her husband the crown matrimonial. After dinner, relying on 
the assurances of Darnley, they separated, and repaired to their 
respective dwellings in the city. 

Mary had passed the first night and day in fits and lamenta- 
tions. She felt some relief from the kind expressions of her bro- 
ther, the earl of Murray; and was no sooner left The conspiracy 
alone with her husband than she resumed her suppressed, 
former ascendency, and convinced him of the impropriety of his 
conduct. They both secretly left the palace, and reached in 
safety the castle of Dunbar. The royal standard was imme- 
diately unfurled ; before the end of the week eight thousand 
faithful subjects had hastened to the aid of Mary; and as she 
approached Edinburgh, the murderers fled to Berwick. The 
English queen had been informed of the object of the conspi- 
racy; but when she heard of the result she sent her congratu- 
lations to Mary, and at her request commanded the assassins 
to leave the kingdom. But the messenger was instructed to 
remark that they had nothing to fear if they did not provoke 
inquiry. 

Mary took up her residence in the castle of Edinburgh, and 
soon was delivered of a son. This child lived to Mary delivered 
ascend the thrones of both kingdoms. Elizabeth 1566. S ° T 
was dancing at Greenwich when Cecil whispered the intelligence 
in her ear. She instantly retired to her chair, reclined her head 
on her hand, and appeared for some time absorbed in profound 



424 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1566. 



thought. By the next morning her feelings were subdued, and 
she expressed her satisfaction at the happy event. 

Elizabeth soon summoned a parliament. The lords of the 
council requested to be informed of her sentiments respecting 
marriage and the succession. She heard them with impatience, 
and told them to go and perform their duties, and that she would 
perform hers. 

As soon, however, as the motion for a supply was made in the 
lower house, it was opposed on the ground that the queen had not 
Elizabeth and redeemed the pledge on the faith of which the last 
her parliament. grant had been voted ; she had neither married nor 
declared her successor. Elizabeth sent them an order to proceed 
to other matters. They maintained that the royal message was 
an infringement of their liberties; she repeated the command. 
They obeyed with reluctance ; but still allowed the bill for the 
subsidy, which had been read only once, to lie unnoticed on the 
table. The queen, after the pause of a fortnight, promised to 
consider the subject. The public business proceeded; and the 
supply was granted. 

In Scotland, the murder of Riccio disappointed the hopes of 
Darnley. Instead of obtaining the matrimonial crown, and with 
it the sovereign authority, he found himself an object of scorn 
and aversion. He therefore formed the design of leaving the 
kingdom. Mary led him before the council, and, holding him by 
the hand, conjured him to detail his complaints, and not to spare 
her if she were the cause of offence. In his answer, he exone- 
rated her from all blame ; but on every other point was sullen 
and reserved. 

Mary about this time got a serious attack of illness, and think- 
ing herself dying, recommended, by letter, her son to the protec- 
tion of the king of France and of the queen of 
ary s ness. j] n g] an( j # Sending for the principal lords, she ex- 
horted them to live in harmony with each other, required them 
to watch with care over the education of the young prince, and 
solicited, as a last favor, liberty of conscience for their country- 
men who professed the Catholic faith, the faith in which she had 
been bred, and in which it was her determination to die. Her 
symptoms were soon however more favorable; she began to re- 
cover slowly ; and the king, who had been sent for at the begin- 



1567 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 425 



ning of her illness, at length paid her a visit; hut no advance 
was made toward a reconciliation. Mary was advised by some of 
the nobles to seek for a divorce, but she did not consent, and the 
lords formed a scheme of assassination. The earl Bothwell took 
upon himself to perpetrate the crime, and the others to save him 
from the consequences. 

It chanced that at this time the small-pox was prevalent in 
Glasgow, and that Darnley took the infection. When the news 
reached Edinburgh, Mary sent her own physician to her husband, 
with a message that she would shortly visit him herself. This 
promise she fulfilled ; their affection seemed to revive ; and they 
mutually promised to forget all former causes of offence. From 
Glasgow, as soon as he was able to remove, she returned with him 
to Edinburgh, and, probably, to preserve the young prince from 
infection, lodged him not in Holyrood House, but in a house 
without the walls, belonging to the provost of St. Mary's, gene- 
rally called " the Kirk of Field.'' Here it was that the conspi- 
rators prepared to execute their plan. By a door Darnley is Mown 
in the city wall their agents obtained access to the lieid. 
cellar of the house, undermined the foundations in several parts, 
and placed a sufficient quantity of gunpower under the angles of 
the building. The queen visited her husband daily, gave him 
repeated testimonies of her affection, and frequently slept in the 
room under his bed-chamber. She had promised to be present at 
a ball to be given on the 9th of February [1567] in honor of the 
marriage of two of her servants ; and the certainty of her absence 
on that night induced the conspirators to select it for the execu- 
tion of the plot. On that day, Mary went as usual to the Kirk 
of Field, with a numerous retinue, remained in Darnley's com- 
pany from six till almost eleven o'clock, and at her departure 
kissed him, and taking a ring from her finger, placed it on his. 
She then returned by the light of torches to Holyrood House ; on 
the termination of the ball, a little after twelve, she retired to her 
chamber ; and about two the palace and city were shaken by a 
tremendous explosion. It was soon ascertained that the house of 
Kirk of Field had been blown up with gunpowder; that the dead 
bodies of the king and his page were lying uninjured in the gar- 
den ; that two men had perished among the ruins ; and that three 

others had escaped with very little hurt. 
2B 36* 



426 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1567. 



Mary's chamber, according to custom on the death of a king, 

was hung with black ; the light of the day was excluded ; and in 

darkness and solitude she received the few who were admitted to 

offer their respects or condolence. Judicial inquiries were insti- 

Eothweii accused tuted, and a proclamation was issued, offering 

of the murder of ... , , - „ , ,. , 

Damiey. rewards in money and land, tor the discovery and 

apprehension of the murderers, with a full pardon to any one of 
the party who would accuse his accomplices. The same noble- 
men, however, continued to attend the royal person. Darnley's 
father, Lennox, expressed his suspicion of Bothwell's guilt, and 
that noblemen demanded a trial. His request being granted, he 
proceeded to the Tolbooth, surrounded by two hundred soldiers 
and four thousand gentlemen. As no prosecutor appeared, the 
jury having heard the indictment, and evidence to show that 
Bothwell could not have been at the Kirk of Field at the time of 
the explosion, returned a verdict of acquittal. 

On the 24th of April, Mary rode to Stirling, to visit her infant 
son, whom, for greater security, she had lately intrusted to the 
Mary taken pri- custody of the earl of Marr. On her return, she 
she marries him. ' had reached the Foulbrigge, half a mile from the 
casle of Edinburgh, when she was met by Bothwell at the head 
of one thousand horse. To resist would have been fruitless ; and 
the queen with her attendants, the earl of Huntley,. Maitland, 
and Melville, were conducted to the castle of Dunbar. There she 
remained a captive for the space of ten days : nor was she suffered 
to depart till she had consented to become the wife of Bothwell. 
He then left the fortress; but it was to conduct the captive queen 
from one prison to another, from the castle of Dunbar to that of 
Edinburgh. Here she pleaded for time, that she might obtain the 
consent of the king of France, and of her relations of the house 
of Guise. But his ambition was too impatient to run the hazard 
of delay. The only remaining obstacle, his existing marriage 
with Janet Gordon, sister to the earl of Huntley, was in a few 
days removed by a divorce. Exactly one month after his trial, 
Bothwell led the queen to the court of session, where, in the pre- 
sence of the judges, she forgave the forcible abduction of her 
person, and declared that he had restored her to the full enjoyment 
of liberty ; the next day she created him duke of Orkney, and 
was married to him. 



1567 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 427 



Several noblemen entered into a confederacy against Bothwell, 
and openly charged him with the murder of Darnley, the treason- 
able seizure and marriage of the queen, and an Mary imprisoned 

. , ,.,,•• P ,i • in the castle of 

intention ot gaming possession ot the young prince Lochievin. 
that he might murder him. In four days, Bothwell ventured, 
with his friends, to meet the more numerous and well-appointed 
force of his enemies on Carberry Hill, at no great distance from 
Edinburgh. From an early hour in the morning till nine at 
night, the two armies faced each other. The queen offered a full 
pardon to the confederates, on condition that they should disband 
their forces ; they required of her to come over to the nobility, 
and leave Bothwell to suffer the punishment of his crime. At 
length it was agreed that he should retire without molestation ; 
that the queen should return to her capital, and that the associated 
lords should pay to her that honor and obedience which was due 
to the sovereign. The agreement was mutually ratified, and the 
army returned toward Edinburgh. An hour did not elapse be- 
fore Mary learned that she was a captive in the hands of unfeel- 
ing adversaries. At her entrance into the city, she was met by a 
mob in the highest state of excitement, and her ears were assailed 
with reproaches and imprecations. The next day she was con- 
veyed by a body of four hundred armed men out of the capital 
to the castle of Lochievin, the residence of William Douglas, half 
brother of Murray. 

Elizabeth had been informed of this extraordinary revolution 
by an envoy from the insurgents, whom she received with the 
strongest expressions of displeasure. The insult offered to the 
Scottish queen was, she contended (and on this oc- The disp i easure 
casion she spoke her real sentiments) common to of Elizabeth - 
every crowned head; it resulted from the doctrines of Knox, 
which she had so often condemned; it required severe and im- 
mediate punishment, that subjects might learn to restrain their 
unhallowed hands from the anointed persons of their sovereigns. 
Soon afterward she sent an ambassador to Scotland to negotiate 
in Mary's favor. 

The Queen of Scots was called upon to resign M forced to 
the crown in favor of her son ; and, when she had resi s n her crown - 
yielded to the threat of force, the royal infant was crowned in the 
High Church in Stirling, and Murray was appointed regent. 



428 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



[A. D. 1567. 



The fall of Both 
well. 



Bothwell had been suffered to retire without molestation from 
Carberry Hill to his castle of Dunbar. Some days later, leaving 
the castle to the care of a trusty partisan, he traversed the west 
and north of Scotland to consult with the friends 
of Mary, by whom it was resolved that Bothwell 
should proceed through Denmark to France, and solicit the ad- 
vice and aid of the French monarch. The earl was preparing for 
his voyage in one of the Shetland isles, when a hostile squadron 
appeared. He put to sea ; his pursuers overtook him ; but the 
engagement was interrupted by a sudden storm, which cast him 
on the coast of Norway, where he was detained a prisoner. 

In June, a silver casket, which Mary had inherited from her 
first husband Francis, and which she is said to have given to 
Bothwell, came into the possession of the earl Morton. In it, if 
we may believe him, were found several papers in the hand- 
writing of the queen, which proved her to have been an accom- 
plice in Bothwell's crime. A resolution was taken in the following 
winter to accuse Mary of adultery and murder ; and an act was 
passed declaring these charges true. 

The Scottish queen was still confined in the towers of Loch- 
levin, under the jealous eye of the lady Douglas, mother to the 
regent. It was in vain that, to recover her liberty, 
she made repeated offers to her brother and the 
council. They had resolved that she should never leave her 
prison alive. But she possessed resources beyond the control of 
her enemies ; and her beauty, her manner, and her misfortunes 
won for her an invaluable partisan in George Douglas, the brother 
of the regent. He introduced a laundress at an early hour into 
the bed-chamber of Mary, who exchanged clothes with the woman, 
and, carrying out a basket of linen, took her seat in the boat. 
She had almost reached the opposite bank, when, to secure her 
mufBer from the rudeness of one of the rowers, she raised her 
arm to her face, and a voice immediately exclaimed, "That is not 
the hand of a washerwoman." She was recognised, and conveyed 
back to Lochlevin. In five weeks afterward she succeeded in 
escaping, and rode in safety to the castle of Hamilton, where she 
revoked the resignation of the crown she made in her prison at 
Lochlevin. At this intelligence, the royalists crowded round their 
sovereign To her brother the regent, she made repeated offers 



Mary escapes. 



1568 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 429 



of settling every cause of dissension in a free parliament ; but 
without success. On May 13th, 1568, Mary was on her road to 
the castle of Dumbarton, when Murray, with a small but disci- 
plined force, appeared on an eminence called Battle of Lano% . 
Langside. At the sight, her followers rode in con- side - 
fusion to charge the rebels ; but were repulsed. From the field 
of battle, the disconsolate queen rode to the abbey of Dundrennan, 
in Galloway, a distance of sixty Scottish miles, in the course of 
the same day. Her adversaries followed in every direction ; but 
she eluded their pursuit, resumed her flight the next evening, and 
on the following morning, after a hasty repast, expressed her deter- 
mination to seek an asylum in the court of " her good sister," the 
queen of England. Her best friends remonstrated ; and the 
archbishop of St. Andrew's conjured her on his knees to change 
her resolution ; but Mary, crossing the Solway Frith in a fishing- 
boat, landed with twelve attendants in the harbor of Workington, 
and proceeded to Carlisle. 

Elizabeth had publicly professed herself the friend of the 
Scottish queen ; but, on the other hand, her ministers were inti- 
mately leagued with the enemies of that princess, The conduct of 

I-.,-, ,-, • ' i » i~i i i i Elizabeth toward 

and Marys unexpected arrival in England opened Mary, 
new prospects to Cecil and his confidential friends in the council. 
They rejoiced that the prey, which they had hunted for years, 
had at last voluntarily thrown herself into the toils ; but they 
were perplexed to reconcile their designs against the royal fugitive 
with the appearance of decency and justice. After repeated 
meetings, it was concluded that to detain her in captivity for life 
would be the most conducive both to the security of their sovereign 
and to the interests of their religion. The accomplishment of 
this object was intrusted to the dark and intriguing mind of Cecil. 
Mary was at first assured that Elizabeth would vindicate the 
common cause of sovereigns, and reinstate her in her former 
authority. Next it was intimated to her that the English queen 
has determined to essay the influence of advice, before she would 
have recourse to arms ; lastly, a hint was given that it was desir- 
able that the Scottish queen should clear herself from the crimes 
with which she had been charged. Mary, immediately after her 
arrival, had demanded permission to visit Elizabeth, that she might 
lay before her the wrongs which she had suffered, and explain to 



430 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1569 



her the deceit of her adversaries. But a personal interview might 
have proved dangerous, not only to Murray and his party, but to 
their friends in the English cabinet. Cecil suggested to his 
mistress, that, as a maiden queen, she could not in decency admit 
into her presence a -woman charged with adultery and murder. 
Mary, however, refused to submit to a trial, as she knew the 
court would be hostile, and requested permission to return again 
into Scotland, or to pass through England to France. The de- 
mand was reasonable — but it was refused. Mary then demanded 
to be allowed permission to prove her innocence in the presence 
of " her good sister," as her friend, but not as her judge. After 
long consultation, it was resolved that Mary should not be re- 
ceived at court till her innocence had been fully established ; 
that her request to leave the kingdom should not be granted ; 
and that she should be transferred from Carlisle to Bolton Castle. 
Cecil suggested an expedient which served his purpose as well as 
a trial of Mary — an investigation, not into her conduct, but that 
of her enemies. Mary assented to this expedient. Murray dared 
not refuse ; and the place of conference was fixed in York, which 
city became the scene of active and intricate negotiation. The 
proceedings were afterward transferred to London. After much 
intrigue on the part of Elizabeth and Cecil, it was resolved to put 
an end to the conferences. Murray and his associates were first 
licensed to depart, with a declaration that, as nothing had been 
proved against them to impair their honor, so they had shown no 
sufficient cause why Elizabeth should conceive or take any evil 
opinion against the queen "her good sister." The victory in 
argument was undoubtedly Mary's. It was claimed by her 
friends ; and it appears to have been acknowledged by the chief 
of the English nobility, who had witnessed the whole of the pro- 
ceedings. 

The Scottish queen was removed to Wynfield. The foreign 
powers complained of the confinement of a crowned head ; but, 
in answer to their remonstrances, Elizabeth boasted of her indul- 
gence to Mary, in suppressing documents which would otherwise 
render her the execration of her contemporaries, and immortalize 
her infamy with posterity. 

In November, 1569, an insurrection took place in the northern 
counties. The object of the insurgents was to march to Tutbury, 



1570 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 431 



to liberate the queen of Scots, and to extort from insurrection in 
Elizabeth a declaration that Mary was next heir favor of Mary- 
to the throne. The first act of hostility was the occupation of 
the city of Durham. Thence the insurgents marched forward, 
issuing proclamations, calling on the people for aid, and restoring 
the ancient service in several places. Their standard, represent- 
ing the Saviour, was borne by Richard Norton, an aged gentle- 
man, whose gray locks and enthusiastic air aroused the feelings 
and commanded the respect of the beholders. They proceeded 
as far as Branham Moor without opposition. But here dissension 
insinuated itself into their counsels. Their money was already ex- 
pended, and all their expectations had been disappointed. Under 
these circumstances they resolved to despatch messengers into 
different counties, to solicit aid from the noblemen and gentle- 
men distinguished by their attachment to the ancient faith, or 
known to abet the cause of the queen of Scots. Elizabeth had 
recourse to the most energetic measures; and having succeeded 
in quelling the insurrection, she caused a large number of the in- 
surgents to be executed. 

In Scotland, at this time, the regent Murray was assassinated ; 
and Lennox, the grandfather of the young king, was, at Eliza- 
beth's recommendation, raised to the regency. 

In 1570, a bull was prepared, in which the pope pronounced 
Elizabeth guilty of heresy, deprived her of her "pretended"' 
right to the crown of England, and absolved her Publication of 
English subjects from their allegiance. Several the papal bull, 
copies were sent to the Spanish ambassador in England. Early 
one morning a copy was seen affixed to the gates of the bishop 
of London's residence in the capital. The council was surprised 
and irritated ; a rigorous search was made through the inns of 
law; and another copy of the bull was found in the chamber of 
a student of Lincoln's Inn, who acknowledged, on the rack, that 
he had received it from a person of the name of Felton. Felton 
confessed that he had set up the bull, and was executed. 

France having again become the scene of war, Elizabeth's 
ministers practised their usual policy. In secret they aided the 
Protestant party; publicly they maintained the relations of 
amity with the Catholics. After some years the war in France 



432 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1570 



ceased, but Elizabeth's interference in French affairs was not for- 
gotten. 

More than two years had arrived since the arrival of Mary in 
England, and she was still a captive. Her death was strongly 

The death of anc ^ repeatedly suggested by some of the council. 
Mary suggested, jf j t was rejected by Elizabeth, her repugnance 
arose less from motives of humanity than of decency. She was 
willing that Mary should perish, but was ashamed to imbrue her 
own hands in the blood of a sister queen. Hence she offered to 
transfer the royal captive to the hands of the Scottish regent, 
provided he would give security that she should be removed out 
of the way; and hence the earl of Shrewsbury, who had the 
custody of Mary, was made to engage that she should be put to 
death on the very first attempt to rescue her. 

In the autumn of 1570, the solicitations of Mary, the attempts 
of her friends in England, and the remonstrances of the French 
and Spanish monarchs, extorted from Elizabeth a promise to fix 
the conditions on which her captive might at last be restored to 
liberty. For this purpose, Cecil repaired to Chatsworth, where 
the Scottish queen was then confined. The negotiations, how- 
ever, were soon broken off. 

It had for some time been a favorite object with the leaders of 
the Huguenots to bring about a marriage between the English 
'queen and the duke of Anjou, the eldest of the two brothers of 
Charles IX. Elizabeth gave permission to those who wished to 
Project of a mar- proceed with this plan. But on the part of the 
™beth bet LT tta r °y al fami] y in France, Catherine de Medicis, the 
duke of Anjou. queen-mother, received the proposal very coldly. 
Repeated messages induced her at last to view the matter in a 
more favorable light; but Anjou sent her word by the king, his 
brother, that he could not think of disgracing himself by taking 
for his wife a woman who had no regard for her own honor. 
More than a fortnight passed before she could extort from her 
son his assent. Elizabeth sent her portrait as a present to the 
French prince, and received at last a proposal of marriage in due 
form from Anjou himself. 

Several new enactments were at this time proposed, having for 
their chief object to check the boldness of the partisans of Mary, 
and to cut off the communication between the English Ca- 



A. D. 1570.] ELIZABETH. 



tholics and the court of Rome. The Catholic 
lords, a large portion of the house, assembled; they 
complained that if the bills passed, they could neither remain 
within the kingdom without offence to their consciences, nor 
leave it without the sacrifice of their fortunes ; and they deter- 
mined to wait in a body on the queen, and present to her a strong 
but respectful remonstrance. This project was, however, aban- 
doned ; but, at the same time, one of the bills respecting the fre- 
quentation of communion under the new form, the most harass- 
ing in its probable consequences, was dropped. The others, 
which were principally aimed against the intercourse with Rome, 
passed the two houses and received the royal assent. 

The Puritans now began to object to the ceremonies which had 
been retained; and the queen resolved to repress the zeal of these 
ultra-reformers. By the assumption of the supremacy, it had 
become the duty of Elizabeth to watch over doctrine, discipline, 
and public worship ; and she therefore appointed The Hi h Com . 
delegates, whom she armed with most formidable mi ssion Court. 
and inquisitorial powers. They were authorized to inquire, on 
the oath of the person accused, and on the oaths of witnesses, 
of all heretical, erroneous, and dangerous opinions; of absence 
from the established service, and the frequentation of private 
conventicles; and to punish the offenders by spiritual censures, 
by fine, imprisonment, and deprivation. The first victims who 
felt the vengeance of this tribunal, called the High Commission 
Court, were the Catholics; from the Catholics its attention was 
soon directed to the Puritans. More than one hundred persons 
were brought before the high commission court; those who re- 
fused to acknowledge their offence were committed ; and of the 
prisoners, twenty-four men and seven women did not recover 
their liberty till the expiration of twelve months. 

The proposal of marriage between Elizabeth and the duke of 
Anjou, though entertained on each side, made but little pro- 
gress. When almost every other article had been settled, the 
duke required the insertion of a clause securing to him the free 
exercise of his religion. This the queen was advised to refuse 
as contrary to law. He then required a promise to the same 
effect in her handwriting. The marriage was therefore broken 

37 



434 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1571. 



off; but an international treaty was concluded to the satisfaction 
of the English cabinet. 

In August, 1571, a conspiracy was discovered, in which the 
duke of Norfolk was implicated. He was conveyed to the Tower 
The duke of by water. The depositions of his servants, and 
coiispiracy^audbe- papers which had been discovered, were laid be- 
headed. f ore jjj m _ jj e confessed that he had been made 
acquainted with several projects of discontented men for the 
surprisal of the queen, or the deliverance of Mary Stuart; pro- 
testing, however, that the idea of injuring the person of the 
sovereign, or of subjugating the kingdom to a foreign prince, 
had never entered his mind. Norfolk was charged with the 
crime of imagining and compassing the death of his own sove- 
reign — 1. By seeking to marry the queen of Scots, who claimed 
the English crown to the exclusion of Elizabeth. 2. By solicit- 
ing foreign powers to invade the realm. 3. By sending money 
to the English rebels and the Scottish enemies of the queen. 
The duke maintained his innocence, but was found guilty. Five 
months after his condemnation, the duke was led to the scaffold; 
and in his speech to the spectators, in which he was repeatedly 
interrupted by the officers, asserted his innocence of treason, and 
his profession of the Protestant faith. 

The death of the queen of Scots was next sought with equal 
obstinacy. Both houses resolved to proceed against her by bill 
Designs against of attainder; the queen forbade it; they dis- 
the life of Mary. beyed; and she repeated the prohibition. Foiled 
in this attempt, the ministers adopted another course; they in- 
troduced a bill, which, by rendering Mary incapable of the suc- 
cession, secured them from the danger of her resentment if she 
should survive the present sovereign. They were, however, op- 
posed by a powerful but invisible counsellor, suspected, though 
not known, to be the earl of Leicester. The queen interdicted 
all reference to the inheritance of the crown, and seeing that, in 
defiance of the message, the bill had passed both houses, she pro- 
rogued the parliament. 

The execution of the duke, and the proceedings in parliament, 
disheartened the friends of Mary in England, while, at the same 
time, her interest was rapidly declining in her native country. 



1572 A.D.I ELIZABETH. 435 



where Lennox, the regent, had exercised his authority with 
rigor. He was killed in 1572, and the earl of Marr was in- 
vested with the regency. His prudence and vigor rendered him 
formidable ; Elizabeth declared openly her intention to support 
him with the whole power of her crown; and the avowed ad- 
herents of Mary dwindled away to a handful of brave and reso- 
lute men, who still kept for her the castle of Edinburgh, and a 
band of Highlanders, who maintained her cause in the moun- 
tains. The duke of Northumberland, one of her firmest friends, 
was executed without trial at this period. 

Elizabeth was next advised to listen to a new proposal of mar- 
riage, not with her first suitor, the duke of Anjou, but with his 
younger brother, the duke of Alencon. The The massacre of 
former was the leader of the Catholic party; the day. 
latter was thought to incline to the tenets of Protestantism. 
This arrangement was unexpectedly checked by an event which 
struck with astonishment all the nations of Europe, and which 
cannot be contemplated without horror at the present day. The 
young king of Navarre was at this time the nominal, the admiral 
Coligny the real leader of the Huguenots. He ruled among 
them as an independent sovereign; and, what chiefly alarmed 
his opponents, seemed to obtain gradually the ascendency over 
the mind of Charles. He had come to Paris to assist at the 
marriage of the king of Navarre, and was wounded in two places 
by an assassin as he passed through the streets. The public 
voice attributed the attempt to the duke of Cruise, in revenge of 
the murder of his father at the siege of Orleans; it had pro- 
ceeded, in reality — and was so suspected by Coligny himself — 
from Catherine, the queen mother. The wounds were not dan- 
gerous; but the Huguenot chieftains crowded to his hotel; their 
threats of vengeance terrified the queen; and in a secret council 
the king was persuaded to anticipate the designs attributed to 
the friends of the admiral. The next morning (St. Bartholo- 
mew's day, 1572,) by the royal order, the hotel was forced; Co- 
ligny and his principal counsellors perished; the populace joined 
in the work of blood; and every Huguenot, or suspected Hugue- 
not, who fell in their way was murdered. 

The news of this sanguinary transaction excited throughout 
England one general feeling of horror. Burghley again advised 



436 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



[A.D. 1572. 



The 



Elizabeth again Elizabeth to put to death her rival, Mary. 

urged to put Marv .. . . .. . . . 

to death. ' queen did not reject the advice; but, that she 

might escape the infamy of clipping her hands in the blood of 
her nearest relative and presumptive heir, a messenger was de- 
spatched to Edinburgh, ostensibly to compose some differences 
among the nobles; but, in reality, to bring about the death of 
the queen of Scots, from the hands of her own subjects. He 
was, however, warned not to commit his sovereign as if the pro- 
posal came from her. Marr, the regent, at first, affected to look 
upon the project as attended with difficulty and peril; but after- 
ward entered into it most cordially, and sought to drive a profit- 
able bargain with Elizabeth. He died soon, after a short illness 
at Stirling, (as his friends gave out, of poison,) and was suc- 
ceeded by Morton, a most determined enemy of Mary, and the 
tried friend of the English ministers. He obtained troops from 
Elizabeth, and took the castle of Edinburgh. 

The late massacre in France had caused many of the Protest- 
ants to cross the eastern frontier into Germany and Switzer- 
land; others, from the western coast, had sought an asylum in 
England; while the inhabitants of Poitou and the neighboring 
provinces poured with their ministers into La Rochelle. The 
place, strong by nature, was still more strengthened by art. 
The enthusiasm of the townsmen taught them to despise the 
efforts of the besiegers under the duke of Anjou. La Rochelle 
was saved by the heroism of its inhabitants, and the impatience 
of Anjou to take possession of the throne of Poland, to which he 
had been elected by the national diet. 

Charles IX. soon died of a pulmonary complaint. Catherine, 
whom he had appointed regent, preserved the crown for her 
Death of Charles second son, the king of Poland, (afterward 
IX - Henry III.,) but she was unable to prevent the 

factious proceedings of the malecontents in the provinces. Eli- 
zabeth offered herself as mediatrix between the king of France 
and his revolted subjects; and a treaty was concluded, by which 
the public exercise of the Protestant worship was permitted with 
a few restrictions. * 

But it is now time that the reader should cast his eyes across 
the northern frontier of France, and survey the convulsed state 
of the Netherlands. Elizabeth had some years before seized a 



1579 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 437 



few ships on their voyage from Spain to the Netherlands, with 
money destined for the pay of the army under the duke of Alva. 
The Spanish soldiers, thus left without pay, lived at free quar- 
ters on the inhabitants. The duke, to raise money, required the 
imposition of new taxes; and, on the refusal of the states, he 
published an edict, imposing them by his own authority as repre- 
sentative of the king. This arbitrary act, subversive of the 
most valuable rights of the nation, filled up, in the estimation of 
the Flemish people, the measure of their grievances. They 
rose, and many of the towns in Holland and Zeeland threw off 
the Spanish yoke. The prince of Orange assumed the govern- 
ment of Holland and Zeeland, and Elizabeth began to view his 
designs with jealousy and distrust. 

In 1579, the young duke of Anjou proposed for Elizabeth, 
and came over to England. Elizabeth was surprised and grati- 
fied; his youth, gayety, and attention atoned for the scars with 
which the small-pox had furrowed his countenance; and, after a 
private courtship of a few days, he departed with the most flat- 
tering expectations of success. A preliminary treaty was con- 
cluded; but the marriage was broken off. 

We should now call the attention of the reader to the state 
of Ireland. It was enacted, by various statutes, that the Irish 
should be "reformed" after the model of the The state of ire- 

ill l-i- it l am * a t this pe- 

Lnghsh Church; but both the nobility and the riod. 
people abhorred the change; and the new statutes were carried 
into execution in those places only where they could be enforced 
at the point of the bayonet. Among the aboriginal Irish, the 
man who chiefly excited the jealousy of the government was 
Shane O'Neil, the eldest among the legitimate children of the 
earl of Tyrone. Shane claimed the chieftainry of Ulster as his 
right, and the natives honored and obeyed him as the O'Neil. 
Through the suggestion of the deputy Sussex, he consented to 
visit Elizabeth, and to lay his pretensions before her. At the 
English court he appeared in the dress of his country, attended 
by his guard, who were armed with their battleaxes, and arrayed 
in linen vests dyed with saffron. The queen was pleased, and, 
though she did not confirm his claim, dismissed him with pro- 
mises of favor. He was of a turbulent but generous disposition, 
proud of his name and importance, and most feelingly alive tc 

37® 



438 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A.D. 15* 



every species of insult. At last he broke — perhaps was driven — 
into acts of open rebellion; repeated losses compelled him to 
seek refuge among the Scots of Ulster; and the Irish chieftain 
was basely assassinated by his new friends, at the instigation of 
Piers, an English officer. By act of parliament the name, with 
the dignity of O'Neil, was extinguished for ever, and to assume 
it was made high-treason. 

But the reduction of Ulster did not secure peace in Ireland, 
which was harassed continually with local wars. A new plan 
was tried in 1572, viz. to colonize the forfeited districts with 
English settlers, who, having an interest in the soil, would be 
willing to oppose the natives without expense to the crown. 
Walter Devereux, earl of Essex, offered to subdue and colonize 
the district of Clanhuboy, in the province of Ulster. The enter- 
prise was soon abandoned ; and the earl consented to aid the de- 
puty in suppressing the insurgents in different parts of the island. 
He died, however, at Dublin, in 1576. 

In 1580, San Giuseppe, an Italian officer in the pay of the 
pontiff, arrived at Smerwick, in Kerry, from Portugal, with 
Death of the carl several hundred men. But the newcomers had 
of Desmond. scarcely erected a fort, when they were besieged 

by the lord deputy on land, and blockaded on the seaside by 
Admiral Winter. San Giuseppe, in opposition to the advice of 
the officers, proposed to surrender. Sir Walter Raleigh entered 
the fort, received their arms, and then ordered or permitted them 
to be massacred in cold blood. This disastrous event extin- 
guished the last hope of Desmond, then the principal Irish chief- 
tain ; yet he contrived to elude the vigilance of his pursuers, and 
for three years dragged on a miserable existence among the glens 
and forests. At last a small party of his enemies, attracted by a 
glimmering light, entered a hut, in which they found a venerable 
old man without attendants, lying on the hearth before the fire. 
He had only time to exclaim, " I am the earl of Desmond," 
when one of the men struck off his head, which was conveyed, a 
grateful present, to Elizabeth, and by her order fixed on London 
bridge. 

Elizabeth continued to persecute all her subjects, who did not 
practise that religious worship which she practised. Every other 
form of service, whether it were that of Geneva or the mass, was 



1580 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 439 



strictly forbidden ; and both the Catholic and the 

_ . 1 t i i Severe penalties 

Puritan were made liable to the severest penalties against those who 
if they presumed to worship God according to the established reit 
dictates of their consciences. Some Puritans glon ' 
died martyrs to their religious principles; but their suffer- 
ings bore no comparison with those of the Catholics, of whom 
many sought with their families an asylum beyond the sea. 
Their lands and property were immediately seized by the crown, 
and given, or sold at low prices, to the followers of the court. 
Those who remained might be divided into two classes. Some, 
to escape the penalties, attended occasionally at the established 
service ; but the greater number abstained from a worship which 
they disapproved, and were, in consequence, liable at any hour to 
be hurried before the court of high commission, to be interrogated 
upon oath how often they had been at church, and when or where 
they had received the sacrament ; and to be condemned, as re- 
cusants, to fines and imprisonment. Private houses were some- 
times searched to discover priests or persons assisting at mass. 
It was expected that, in the course of a short time, the Catholic 
priesthood, and with it the exercise of the Catholic worship, 
would become extinct in the kingdom. But the foresight of 
William Allen, a clergyman of an ancient family in Lancashire, 
and formerly principal of St. Mary's Hall in Oxford, prevented 
this. To him it occurred that colleges might be opened abroad, 
in lieu of those which had been closed to the Catholics at home. 
His plan was approved by his friends ; several foreign noblemen 
and ecclesiastical bodies offered their contributions; and Allen 
established himself in the university of Douay, whither English 
Catholics proceeded to study theology, to receive orders, and 
then to return to England. Thus a constant succession was 
maintained; and in the course of the first five years, Dr. Allen 
sent almost one hundred missionaries into the kingdom. But 
they were subjected to the utmost severity of the law. A priest 
named Mayne was charged with having obtained a bull from 
Rome, that he denied the queen's supremacy, and said mass. 
Of these charges no satisfactory evidence was offered; but the 
court informed the jury that, where proof could not be procured, 
strong presumption might supply its place; and a verdict of 
guilty having been returned, Mayne suffered with constancy the 



440 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1581. 



cruel death of a traitor. With him were condemned fifteen per- 
sons, partly neighbors and partly servants, as aiders and abettors 
of his treason. 

A more active search was now made after recusants; every 
jail in the kingdom numbered among its inmates prisoners for 
religion ; and on one occasion not fewer than twenty Catholics 
of family and fortune perished of an infectious disease in the 
castle of York. Nelson, a priest, and Sherwood, a layman, were 
drawn, hanged, and quartered. 

But the experience of ages has proved that such severities can- 
not damp the ardor of religious zeal. Missionaries poured into 
the kingdom. Gregory XIII. established an additional seminary 
in Rome. Robert Persons and Edward Campian, two English- 
men of distinguished merit and ability, were sent by the Jesuits 
Laws against the to England. When the parliament assembled, the 
Catholics. ministers called on the two houses for laws of still 

greater severity; and every measure which they proposed was 
readily adopted. No Catholic could enjoy security even in the 
privacy of his own house, where he was liable at all hours, but 
generally in the night, to be. visited by a magistrate at the head 
of an armed mob. At a signal given, the doors were burst open ; 
and the pursuivants, in separate divisions, hastened to the dif- 
ferent apartments, examined the beds, tore the tapestry and 
wainscotting from the walls, forced open the closets, drawers, 
and coffers, and made every search which their ingenuity could 
suggest, to discover either a priest, or books, chalices, and vest- 
ments appropriated to the Catholic worship. Campian was taken 
in Berkshire, in July, 1581, and conveyed in procession to the 
Tower; Persons continued for some months to brave the danger 
which menaced him ; but at length, at the urgent request of his 
friends, both for their security and his own, he retired beyond 
the sea. 

The use of the torture was common to most of the European 
nations ; in England, during the reign of Elizabeth, it was em- 
ployed with the most wanton barbarity. The Catholic prisoner 
was hardly lodged in the Tower before he was placed on the 
rack. Campian, (who had been often put to the torture,) twelve 
other priests, and one layman, collected from different prisons, 
were arraigned for a conspiracy to murder the queen, to over- 



1581 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 441 



throw the church and state, and to withdraw the subjects from 
the allegiance due to the sovereign. They declared that, what- 
ever might be pretended, their religion was their only offence ; 
but the jury, after an hour's deliberation, returned a verdict of 
guilty against all the prisoners. Campian and eight others were 
executed.* 

The Anabaptists also were doomed to suffer at the stake under 
Elizabeth, as their predecessors had suffered under her father 
and brother. They rejected the baptism of in- g eV erity against 
fants, denied that Christ assumed flesh of the the ^baptists. 
Virgin, and taught that no Christian ought to take an oath, or 
to accept the office of magistrate. Some were dismissed with a 
reprimand ; but two perished in the flames of Sinithfield, amid 
the applause of an immense concourse of spectators. Four years 
afterward, for the profession of similar opinions, Matthew Ham- 
mond, a ploughwright, who had been pronounced an obstinate 
heretic by the bishop of Norwich, was burnt in the ditch of that 
city; and in the same place, but after an interval of ten years, 
was also consumed Francis Kett, a member of one of the uni- 
versities. 

The unfortunate Mary had now for several years suffered all 
the horrors of a rigorous and protracted imprisonment in the 
castle at Sheffield. Elizabeth, though she graciously accepted 
from her captive presents of needlework and of Parisian dresses, 
invariably eluded or rejected every petition for a mitigation of 
the severity of her confinement. 

As far as regarded the Scottish adherents of the captive, the 
English queen was free from alarm, so long as Morton retained 
the regency. But his rapacity had excited the Morton accused 
murmurs, and his submission to Elizabeth had p M * e y and^cx* 
wounded the pride of the nation. At length, the cuted - 
earls of Argyle and Athol obtained access to the young king ; 
and James, by their persuasion, though he was but twelve years 



* Hallam remarks, as an extenuating circumstance distinguishing this per- 
secution from that of Mary, that no woman was put to death under the penal 
code, so far as he remembers. — -Const. Hist. i. 197, note. The fact, however, is, 
that Margaret Clitheroe was executed in 15S6, Margaret "Ward in 15S8, and 
Anne Line in 1601. Mrs. Wells roceived sentence of death in 1591, and died 
in prison. 

2C 



442 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1581. 



old, assumed the government, summoned the noblemen of their 
party to meet him in Stirling, and sent to Morton an order to 
resign his authority. He obeyed with apparent cheerfulness; 
but in two months his intrigues gave him possession of the royal 
person, and enabled him, as head of the council, to resume the 
power which he had lost. One day, however, when the young 
king was seated at the board with his council, James Stuart, 
captain of the guard, and son to Lord Ochiltree, requested per- 
mission to speak to his sovereign. Being admitted, he fell on 
his knees, and accused James, earl of Morton, of having been 
guilty act and part of the murder of the king's father, Darnley. 
Morton treated the charge and its author with sovereign con- 
tempt. But Stuart replied in language equally bold; and the 
justice-clerk having delivered his opinion, that an individual ac- 
cused of treason must be committed till legal inquiry had been 
made, Morton was confined in Dumbarton Castle. He was tried, 
and found guilty by the unanimous verdict of his peers, and soon 
afterward beheaded. He admitted that he knew of the intention 
to murder Darnley, but declared that he took no part in the act. 

The English Catholics sent deputies to James of Scotland, to 
whom he talked of the affection which he felt toward his mother, 
of his sense of the many wrongs which she had suffered, and of 
his readiness to co-operate in any plan for her deliverance from 
captivity; but lamented that his enemies had deprived him of the 
means, as he was a king without a revenue. 

In France, the general opinion was that Mary and James ought 
to be associated on the Scottish throne ; and that the pope and 
Project in favor ^ ie king of Spain should be solicited to relieve the 
of Mary: it fails, present pecuniary wants of the young king. When 
this plan was communicated to Mary, she not only gave her own 
consent, but earnestly solicited that of her son. At the first pro- 
posal James was alarmed ; but when he was assured that Mary 
would leave to him the sole exercise of the sovereign authority 
within the realm, he signified his assent. But this project was 
extinguished in its very birth by the promptitude and policy of 
Elizabeth's cabinet. Under its auspices a new revolution was 
organized in Scotland. The earl of Gowrie invited James to his 
castle of Buthven, secured the person of the unsuspecting prince, 
and assumed with his associates the exercise of the royal authority. 



1581 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 443 

The Scottish lords of the English faction ruled again without 
control. 

For several weeks, the Scottish queen was kept in close confine- 
ment, that this unexpected event, so fatal to her hopes, might be 
concealed from her knowledge. When the com- Marv > g letter t 
munication was at last made, it alarmed her ma- Elizabeth, 
ternal tenderness; she read in her own history the fate which 
awaited her son ; and from her bed-chamber, to which she was 
confined by sickness, wrote to Elizabeth a long and most eloquent 
remonstrance. Having requested the queen to accompany her in 
imagination to the throne of the Almighty, their common judge, 
she enumerated the wrongs which she had suffered from her 
English sister while she reigned in Scotland, on her flight into 
England, after her innocence had been proved in the conferences 
at York and Westminster, and now, last of all, in the captivity 
of her son. In this letter Mary states, that during her imprison- 
ment at Lochlevin, she received more than one letter from the 
English queen, inviting her to flee to England for protection, and 
promising to meet her with an English army at the borders. One 
of these letters was accompanied with a diamond ring, to be kept 
by her as a token or pledge of Elizabeth's sincerity. Mary con- 
trived to escape, and from the field of Langside, aware of the 
uncertainty of an appeal to arms, she sent back to the queen by 
a special messenger this very ring to remind her of her promise. 
These facts fully explain why she afterward, in opposition to the 
advice of her best friends, determined to pass the Solway Frith 
and land in England. Mary begged that if she must remain a 
captive, the queen would grant her a Catholic clergyman to pre- 
pare her soul for death, and two additional female servants to 
attend on her during her sickness. Whether this energetic ap- 
peal made any impression on the heart of Elizabeth we know not; 
it procured no additional indulgence to the royal captive. 

A new plan for the liberation of Mary was soon devised. It 
was proposed that the duke of Guise should land with an army 
in the south of England ; that James with a Scot- a new plan for 

..,« -ii-i,, 1 , . , tlie liberation of 

tish torce should enter the northern counties ; and Mary. 
that the English friends of the house of Stuart should be sum- 
moned to the aid of the injured queen. The king immediately 
expressed his assent; but Mary, aware that her keepers had 



444 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1582. 



orders to deprive her of life if any attempt were made to carry 
her away by force, sought rather to obtain her liberty by con- 
cession and negotiation. She acquainted Elizabeth with her 
design of transferring all her rights to her son ; and proposed a 
league of perpetual amity between the two crowns. Elizabeth 
appeared to relent, but soon changed her mind, and the cup of 
promise was again, for the twentieth time, dashed from the lips 
of Mary Stuart. 

At this time, the laws against Catholics were enforced with un- 

Severity against exanipled severity. The scaffolds were repeatedly 

the Catholics. drenched with the blood of priests executed as 

traitors ; and in several counties the prisons were crowded with 

recusants of ancient and noble families. 

Elizabeth also sought to restore and to recruit the English fac- 
tion in Scotland. The intrigues of her minister, Walsingham, 
were supported by the gold of the queen. The king, who felt his 
throne tremble under him, commanded, by proclamation, all dis- 
affected persons to quit the realm. Elizabeth had resolved to aid 
her friends with an English force ; but its advance was retarded 
by a strong remonstrance from the French ambassador ; and the 
design was laid aside. 

The cause of Mary had never worn so favorable an appearance 
as it did at the present moment. The English faction in Scotland 
was extinct ; her son was believed to be at her devotion ; Eliza- 
beth, anxious to be freed from apprehension, earnestly sought an 
agreement. Little doubt was entertained that a treaty would be 
concluded. But there always happened something to disappoint 
the expectations of Mary. Creighton, a Scottish Jesuit, and 
Abdy, a Scottish priest, both on their way to their native coun- 
try, had been captured by a Dutch cruiser ; and, though Scotland 
was not at war with any other power, were conducted as prison- 
ers to England. In the Tower, and in the presence of the rack, 
Creighton disclosed all the particulars of a projected invasion of 
England ; and the treaty was broken off. 

It was owing, perhaps, to the peculiar circumstances in which 

the king of Scotland had been placed from his infancy, or to the 

Mary treated with education which he had received from his tutors, 

Buffet by her son. that he felt none of those generous sentiments 

which usually glow with so much ardor in the bosom of youth. 



1586 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 445 



In 1585, Mary appealed to him. James returned a cold and dis- 
respectful answer, which opened the eyes of the captive to the 
hopelessness of her situation. Even the son, on whose affection 
she rested her fondest hopes, had deceived — had abandoned her. 
In the anguish of her mind she again wrote to Elizabeth, begging, 
as a last favor, her liberty and life. She demanded nothing more ; 
as to the conditions, her "good sister" might name, and she 
would subscribe them. She had now nothing to preserve for 
a son who had abandoned her ; and was therefore ready to make 
every sacrifice, except that of her religion. But the English 
queen, no longer afraid of the interposition of James, neglected 
the offers and prayers of her captive, and committed the cus- 
tody of her person to Sir Amyas Paulet, from whose austerity 
and fanaticism Mary anticipated nothing but severity, perhaps 
assassination. 

By the death of the duke of Anjou, the right of succession to 
the crown of France had devolved on Henry de Bourbon, king 
of Navarre, afterward Henry IV. Opposition to the right of 
Henry was organized by the young duke of Guise, a prince 
who had inherited the talents with the ambition of his family. 
Elizabeth kept her eyes fixed on the struggle between the two 
parties ; for she believed her own interests to be intimately con- 
nected with those of the king of Navarre. She therefore sent 
him large sums of money, and repeatedly made the offer of an 
asylum in England, whenever he might find himself an unequal 
match for his enemies. 

A negotiation was opened at this time between Elizabeth and 
James, and a treaty was concluded, by which the queen of Eng- 
land and the king of Scotland bound themselves Treaty between 

i-r-,., /■•! • i rr James and Eliza- 

to support the rrotestant faith agamst the efforts beth. 

of the Catholic powers, and to furnish to each other a competent 

aid in case of invasion by any foreign prince. 

The misfortunes of Mary, queen of Scots, were, at length, 
drawing to a close; her friends had blindly adopted a course 
which conducted her to the scaffold. In 1586, a Babington's at- 
plan for her liberation was arranged. One of the Mary, 
most active in the plot was named Babington, a young man of 
ancient family and ample fortune. Some years previously he had 
been page to the earl of Shrewsbury, a situation in which he had 

38 



446 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 158G. 

learned to admire and to pity Lis lord's captive, the queen of 
Scots. These feelings, as he advanced in years, ripened into the 
most enthusiastic attachment to her interests ; and he had fre- 
quently rendered her very important services. He at first objected 
to any forcible attempt in her favor. It would be to do the work 
of her enemies — to provoke her immediate death at the hands of 
her warder. But he learned from a priest named Ballard a plan 
devised in Paris ; he entered into it with the most sanguine ex- 
pectations of success; this plan embraced the assassination of 
Elizabeth, and the carrying off of the Scottish queen. It then 
occurred, perhaps was treacherously suggested to him, to consult 
Mary, and a letter to her was prepared, stating that, upon the 
representation received from Ballard, it was the resolution of 
himself and friends, at the risk of their lives and fortunes, to 
procure a sufficient force to "warrant the landing of foreign aid, 
her deliverance from prison, and the despatch of the usurping 
competitor ;" assuring her, that on the receipt of her approbation 
they were ready to bind themselves on the sacrament to succeed 
or forfeit their lives. The letter came into the hands of Walsing- 
ham, one of the ministers of Elizabeth, who deemed it requisite 
for his own safety to communicate it to the queen. 

Mary accepted the offer of liberation made to her by Babing- 
ton, and composed instructions for his guidance on that point; but 
he and several others were soon arrested, tried, and executed for 
high -treason. Two successive days were allotted for their execu- 
tion. The queen wished that they might suffer some kind of 
death more barbarous and excruciating than the usual punishment 
of treason; but when it was represented to her that such an 
alteration would be illegal, she consented that the law should have 
its course, on condition that the executions were protracted to the 
extremity of pain. 

To return to the history of the Scottish queen. The great 
question was, how was the life of the captive to be taken ? Lei- 
Mary arraigned ces t Gr recommended the sure but silent operation 
for trial. f poison; Walsinghani, on the contrary, advised, 

as more honorable to the sovereign, the form and solemnity of a 
public trial. Mary was removed to the castle of Fotheringhay, 
in Northamptonshire, the place selected for her trial and death ; 
and a commission was issued to forty-six individuals, peers, privy 



1586 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 447 



counsellors, and judges, constituting them a court to inquire into 
the case. On the 11th of October [158G] the commissioners ar- 
rived at the castle. Mary, on learning their business, said, " I 
am sorry to be charged by my sister the queen with that of which 
I am innocent ; but let it be remembered that I am also a queen, 
and not amenable to any foreign jurisdiction. I will not degrade 
the Scottish crown, nor stand as a criminal at the bar of an Eng- 
lish court of justice." 

An expression, however, had fallen from one of the commis- 
sioners, which exceedingly distressed the unfortunate captive; 
that, if she refused to plead, the world would attribute her obsti- 
nacy to consciousness of guilt. The high tone of her mind in- 
sensibly relaxed ; and Mary informed the commissioners that she 
was content to waive her objection, and therefore she consented to 
be tried, though she refused the aid of counsel. 

The charge against the Scottish queen, like that against Babing- 
ton, had been divided into two parts : that she had conspired with 
foreigners and traitors to procure the invasion of Jud „ ment a „ a i na t 
the realm, and the death of the queen. The pa- her - 
pers exhibited to the court as Mary's were only copies. No at- 
tempt was made to show what had become of the originals, or 
when, where, or by whom the copies had been taken. The com- 
missioners adjourned the court, to meet again in the star-chamber 
at Westminster on an early day. The court was opened at West- 
minster in the presence of a numerous assemblage of members 
belonging to both houses of parliament ; but Mary was absent, 
immured in the castle of Fotheringhay. With one exception, the 
commissioners unanimously gave judgment, that " Mary, daugh- 
ter of James V., commonly called queen of Scotland, had com- 
passed and imagined divers matters tending to the hurt, death, 
and destruction of the queen." 

On hearing the result, Mary denied solemnly that she had been 
privy to a conspiracy against the life of their queen. She had, 
she said, accepted an oifer made to rescue her from Mary's deeiara, 

, . . .... tion of her inno 

prison ; and where was the person in her situation cence. 
who would not, after an unjust captivity of twenty years, have 
done the same ? Her real crime was her adhesion to the religion 
of her fathers, a crime of which she was proud, and for which 
she would be happy to lay down her life. She wrote to Eliza- 



448 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1586. 

beth, praying that her dead body might be conveyed to France, 
and deposited near that of her mother ; that she might send a 
jewel, her farewell, and her blessing to her son ; that her servants 
might be allowed to retain the small bequests which it was her 
intention to make them ; and that she might not be put to death 
in private, otherwise her enemies would say of her, as they had 
said of others, that despair had induced her to shorten her days. 
Throughout the whole letter she carefully avoided every expression 
which might be interpreted as a petition for mercy. This noble 
letter, worthy of a queen and a martyr, was the last which Mary 
wrote to her English cousin. It drew tears from Elizabeth, but 
nothing more. 

James of Scotland felt little for a mother whom he had never 
known, and whom he had been taught to look upon as an enemy, 
James writes to seeking to deprive him of his authority. He would 
Elizabeth. probably have abandoned her but for an admoni- 

tion of the French court, that her execution would exclude him 
from the succession to the English throne ; and the remonstrances 
of tbe Scottish nobles, who could not brook the notion that a 
Scottish queen should perish on a scaffold. James therefore wrote 
to Elizabeth a letter of expostulation, but it had no effect. 

After the sentence, Elizabeth spent two months in a state of 
apparent irresolution. She was often heard to lament, that among 
Elizabeth signs the thousands who professed to be attached to her 
Mary's exTcutioiT as their sovereign, not one would spare her the ne- 
cessity of dipping her hands in the blood of a sister queen. 
After the departure of the French and Scottish ambassadors, who 
had fruitlessly appealed to Elizabeth for mercy, she signed the 
warrant, telling her secretary Davison to take it to the great seal, 
and to trouble her no more about it; adding, with a smile of 
irony, that on his way he might call on Walsingham, who was 
sick, and who, she feared, "at the sight of it would die outright.'' 
Then suddenly recollecting herself, she said, " Surely Paulet and 
Drury, Mary's jailers, might ease me of this burden. Do you 
and Walsingham sound their dispositions." A letter was accord- 
ingly forwarded to Fotheringhay on the same day, in the name 
of both secretaries. It informed the two keepers, that the queen 
charged them with lack of care for her service, otherwise they 
would long ago have shortened the life of their captive. Paulet 



1587 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 449 



replied immediately, that his goods, living, and life were at the 
queen's service ; but he would never shed blood without law of 
warrant. Drury subscribed to Paulet's opinion. Elizabeth told 
Davison to proceed no further without her orders ; but the council 
resolved unanimously that the queen had done all that the law 
required on her part ; and that it was now their duty to proceed, 
and take the rest of the burden on themselves. Davison, how- 
ever, put the question to Elizabeth, whether she intended to pro- 
ceed to the execution of the commission or not. " Yea," with 
the addition of an oath, was her reply, with more than usual 
vehemence ; but she did not like the form, for it threw all the 
responsibility on herself. 

On the 7th of February, 1587, the earl of Shrewsbury arrived 
at Fotheringhay; and his office of earl marshal instantly disclosed 
the fatal object of his visit. The queen rose from Mary receives the 
her bed, dressed, and seated herself by a small a ^t on ? h s e W or° 
table, having previously arranged her servants, der for her death - 
male and female, on each side. The earl entered uncovered ; he 
was followed by the earl of Kent, the sheriff, and several gentle- 
men of the county; and Bcale, after a short preface, read aloud 
the commission for the execution. Mary listened, without any 
change of countenance ; then, crossing herself, she bade them 
welcome ; the day, she said, which she had long desired, had at 
last arrived; she had languished in prison near twenty years, 
useless to others, and a burden to herself; nor could she conceive 
a termination to such a life more happy or more honorable, than 
to shed her blood for her religion. She next enumerated the 
wrongs which she had suffered, the offers which she had made, 
and the artifices and frauds employed by her enemies; and, in 
conclusion, placing her hand on a Testament which lay on the 
table, "As for the death of the queen your sovereign," said she, 
" I call God to witness, that I never imagined it, never sought it, 
nor ever consented to it." " That book," exclaimed the earl of 
Kent, " is a popish Testament, and of course the oath is of no 
value." "It is a Catholic Testament," rejoined the queen; "on 
that account I prize it the more." The earl exhorted her to ac- 
cept the spiritual services of the dean of Peterborough, a learned 
divine appointed by the queen. But Mary replied, that she was, 
perhaps, better versed in controversy than he thought ; she had 

3S* 



450 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1587. 

read much, and had attended to the most learned of the Pro- 
testant preachers ; but had never met with any argument which 
should induce her to leave the faith of her fathers. She re- 
quested that she might have the aid of Le Preau, her almoner, 
who was still in the house; but this, which was the last and only 
indulgence that she had to demand, was cruelly refused. Mary 
asked when she was to suffer. The earl of Shrewsbury answered, 
but with considerable agitation, " To-morrow morning, at eight 
o'clock." 

Mary heard the announcement of her death with a serenity 
of countenance, and dignity of manner, which awed and affected 
the beholders; but her attendants burst into tears and lamenta- 
tions. 

After long and fervent prayer, the queen was called to supper. 
She ate sparingly; and before she rose from table, drank to all 
The night prcvi- her servants; asking at the same time forgiveness 
tion. of them, if she had ever spoken or acted toward 

them unkindly. The last night of Mary's life was spent in the 
arrangement of her domestic affairs, the writing of her will and of 
three letters, and in exercises of devotion. In the retirement of 
her closet, with her two maids, she prayed and read alternately; 
and sought for support and comfort in reading the passion of 
Christ, About four she retired to rest; but it was observed that 
she did not sleep. Her lips were in constant motion, and her 
mind seemed absorbed in prayer. At the first break of day her 
household assembled around her. She read to them her will, 
distributed among them her clothes and money, and bade them 
adieu, kissing the women, and giving her hand to kiss to the 
men. Weeping, they followed her into her oratory, where she 
took her place in front of the altar; they knelt down and prayed 
behind her. 

In the midst of the great hall of the castle had been raised a 
scaffold covered with black serge, and surrounded with a low 
she takes leave railing. Before eight a message was sent to the 
of her servants. q ue en, who replied that she would be ready in 
half an hour. At that time the sheriff entered the oratory, and 
Mary arose, taking the crucifix from the altar in her right, and 
carrying her prayer-book in her left hand. Her servants were 
forbidden to follow; they insisted; but the queen bade them to 



15S7A.D.] ELIZABETH. 451 

be content, and turning, gave them her blessing. They received 
it on their knees, some kissing her hands, others her mantle. 
The door closed; and the burst of lamentation from those within 
resounded through the hall. 

Mary was now joined by the earls and her keepers, and de- 
scending the staircase, found at the foot Melville, the steward of 
her household, who for several weeks had been Mary's progress 
excluded from her presence. « Good Melville," to the scaffokL 
said Mary, " I pray thee report that I die a true woman to my 
religion, to Scotland, and to France. May God forgive them 
that have long thirsted for my blood as the hart doth for the 
brooks of water. Commend me to my son; and tell him that I 
have done nothing prejudicial to the dignity or independence of 
his crown." She made a last request, that her servants might 
be present at her death. But the earl of Kent objected. When 
she asked with vehemence, "Am I not the cousin to your queen, 
a descendant of the blood royal of Henry VII., a married queen 
of France, and the anointed queen of Scotland?" It was then 
resolved to admit four of her men and two of her women ser- 
vants. She selected her steward, physician, apothecary, and sur- 
geon, with her two maids. Mary wore the richest of her dresses, 
that which was appropriate to the rank of a queen-dowager. Her 
step was firm, and her countenance cheerful. She bore without 
shrinking the gaze of the spectators and the sight of the scaf- 
fold, the block, and the executioner; and advanced into the hall 
with that grace and majesty which she had so often displayed in 
her happier days, and in the palace of her fathers. To aid her, 
as she mounted the scaffold, Paulet offered his arm. "I thank 
you, sir," said Mary; "it is the last trouble I shall give you, and 
the most acceptable service you have ever rendered me." 

The queen seated herself on a stool which was prepared for 
her; and in an audible voice addressed the assembly. She said 
that she pardoned from her heart all her enemies. she prays for her 

. . . . _ ... son, Elizaheth, ami 

She then repeated with a loud voice, and in the the church. 
Latin language, passages from the book of Psalms; and a prayer 
in French, in which she begged of God to pardon her sins, declared 
that she forgave her enemies, and protested that she was inno- 
cent of ever consenting in wish or deed to the death of her Eng- 
lish sister. She then prayed in English for Christ's afflicted 



452 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1587. 



church, for her son James, and for Queen Elizabeth, and in con- 
clusion, holding up the crucifix, exclaimed, "As thy arms, 
God, were stretched out upon the cross, so receive me into the 
arms of thy mercy, and forgive me my sins." " Madam," said 
the earl of Kent, " you had better leave such popish trumperies, 
and bear him in your heart." She replied, " I cannot hold in 
my hand the representation of his sufferings, but I must at the 
same time bear him in my heart." When her maids, bathed in 
tears, began to disrobe their mistress, the executioners, fearing 
the loss of their usual perquisites, hastily interfered. The queen 
remonstrated ; but instantly submitted to their rudeness, observ- 
ing to the earls with a smile, that she was not accustomed to 
employ such grooms, or to undress in the presence of so nume- 
rous a company. Her servants, at the sight of their sovereign 
in this lamentable state, could not suppress their feelings ; but 
Mary, putting her finger to her lips, commanded silence, gave 
them her blessing, and solicited their prayers. One of her 

Her execution, niaids, taking from her a handkerchief edged with 
February 8, 1587. gold, pinned it over her eyes ; the executioners, 
holding her by the arms, led her to the block ; and the queen 
kneeling down, said repeatedly, with a firm voice, " Into thy 
hands, Lord, I commend my spirit." But the sobs and 
groans of the spectators disconcerted the headsman. He trem- 
bled, missed his aim, and inflicted a deep wound in the lower 
part of the skull. The queen remained motionless ; and at the 
third stroke her head was severed from her body. The execu- 
tioner held it up, and cried as usual, " God save Queen Eliza- 
beth." " So perish all her enemies !" subjoined the dean of 
Peterborough. " So perish all the enemies of the gospel !" ex- 
claimed, in a still louder tone, the fanatical earl of Kent. Not 
a voice was heard to cry Amen. Party feeling was absorbed in 
pity. 

The body was embalmed the same day. It was afterward en- 
closed in lead, and kept in the same room for six months, till 
August, when Elizabeth ordered it to be interred with royal 
pomp in the abbey church of Peterborough, opposite to the tomb 
of Catherine, queen of Henry VIII. It was transferred to West- 
minster by order of James I. in 1612. 

When one of Elizabeth's ladies mentioned before her, as it 



1587 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 453 



were casually, the death of Mary Stuart, she maintained an air 
of perfect indifference; but soon, sending for Hatton, expressed 
the most violent indignation, and indulged in Elizabeth affect- 

. ed regret at the 

threats of the most fearful vengeance against the death of Mary. 
men who had abused her confidence and usurped her autho- 
rity, by putting the queen of Scots to death without her know- 
ledge or consent ; she attempted to prove the sincerity of her 
regret by the execution of her threats ; she suspended the ob- 
noxious ministers ; but one after another all, with the exception 
of Davison, were restored to office and favor. He had earned 
this distinction ; for, in defending himself, he charged the queen 
indirectly with falsehood, and alluded in obscure terms to her 
message to Paulet. He was condemned in a fine of ten thou- 
sand marks, and to be imprisoned during the royal pleasure. 
The treasury seized all his property; so that at his release from 
confinement in 1589, he found himself reduced to a state of ex- 
treme indigence. The queen, though she lived seventeen years 
longer, would never restore him to favor. 

It may appear surprising, but a full month elapsed before the 
king of Scotland received any certain intelligence of the execu- 
tion of his mother. At the news he burst into The conduct of 
tears, and talked of nothing but vengeance; but ^raecutiSTof 
Elizabeth's partisans in the Scottish court sup- his mother - 
ported her cause. They admonished James to recollect that he 
was now the next heir to the English crown, and advised him 
not to forfeit that^ splendid inheritance by offending a princess 
who alone could remove him from it. His indignation gradu- 
ally evaporated ; and his mouth was sealed with a present of 
£4000. 

The revenge of Henry III. of France was equally harmless. 
A sense of honor had compelled him to forewarn Elizabeth that 
he should consider the execution of a queen-dowager of France 
as an insult offered to the French crown; but the death of Mary 
was left unrevenged by those on whom that duty chiefly devolved 
— her son the king of Scotland, and her brother-indaw the king 
of France. 

That spirit of commercial enterprise which had been awakened 
under Mary, seemed to pervade and animate every description of 
men during the reign of Elizabeth. For the extension of trade, 



454 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1587. 



Commercial en- an< ^ the discovery of unknown lands, associations 
terprises. were formed, companies were incorporated, ex- 

peditions were planned; and the prospect of immense profit, 
which, though always anticipated, was seldom realized, seduced 
many to sacrifice their whole fortunes, and prevailed even on the 
ministers, the nobility, and the queen herself, to risk considerable 
sums in these hazardous undertakings. 

In 1562, Sir John Hawkins commenced the trade in slaves. 
He made three voyages to the coast of Africa; bartered articles 
slave-trade com- °^ trifling value for negroes ; crossed the Atlantic 
menccd - to Hispaniola and the Spanish settlements in 

America; and in exchange for his captives returned with large 
quantities of hides, sugar, ginger, and pearls. This trade was, 
however, illicit; and during his third voyage, he was surprised 
by the Spanish fleet. Hawkins lost his fleet, his treasure, and 
the majority of his followers. Out of six ships under his com- 
mand, two only escaped ; and of these, one foundered at sea ; 
the other, commanded by Francis Drake, brought back the rem- 
nant of the adventurers to Europe. Some years afterward, Drake 
circumnavigated the globe. 

We now arrive at a memorable epoch in the reign of Eliza- 
beth. The queen had almost annually offered injuries to the 

The coutem- king of Spain. She had intercepted his treasure, 

plated invasion of ... . . . . . 1 1 i 1 1 • i r 

England. nad given aid to his rebels, had hired foreign mer- 

cenaries to fight against his armies, and had suffered her mariners 
to plunder and massacre his defenceless subjects on the high 
seas and in his American dominions. Policy taught him to dis- 
semble for a long time; but the constant repetition of insult 
sharpened the edge of his resentment. At length he resolved to 
invade England with one hundred and thirty-five sail of men-of- 
war, carrying eight thousand seamen and nineteen thousand sol- 
diers, who obeyed the command of the marquis of Santa Cruz, 
an officer who had grown gray in the naval service, and whose 
brow was shaded with the laurels of numerous victories. 

Elizabeth ordered that a military council for the defence of the 

kingdom should be established ; and that all the male population 

Preparations for ^ rom tne a g e °f eighteen to that of sixty should be 

defence. enrolled. England, however, was destined to be 

saved by the skill and intrepidity of her navy, which at this time 



1587 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 45J 



consisted of thirty-four men-of-war. The city of London added 
thirty-three, and private individuals eighteen sail ; and to these, 
in such an emergency, were added forty-three hired ships and 
fifty-three coasters. The chief command was assumed, in virtue 
of his office, by Lord Howard of Effingham, admiral of England. 
Drake was appointed lieutenant of the fleet; and the best ships 
were given to Hawkins, Forbisher, and other mariners, who had 
acquired experience and displayed that contempt of danger and 
that spirit of enterprise which had long been characteristic of the 
British sailor. There was within the realm a class of men whose 
doubtful loyalty created alarm in the cabinet. The real number 
of the English Catholics was unknown, for the severity of the 
penal laws had taught many to conceal their religion ; but it was 
loosely conjectured that they amounted to at least one-half of the 
population of the kingdom. But, though persecuted, no provoca- 
tion could urge them to any act of imprudence. They displayed 
no less patriotism than their more favored countrymen. The 
peers armed their tenants and dependants in the service of the 
queen ; some of the gentlemen equipped vessels, and gave the 
command to Protestants ; and many solicited permission to fight 
in the ranks as privates against the common enemy. 

Under the duke of Medina Sidonia the Armada sailed from 
the Tagus. The grandeur of the spectacle excited the most flat- 
tering anticipations; and every breast beat high The sailing of 
with the hope of conquest and glory. In a few the Armada - 
days the delusion was dispelled. Off Cape Finisterre, the southerly 
breeze was exchanged for a storm from the west; the Armada 
was dispersed along the shores of Grallicia; three galleys ran 
aground on the coast of France, eight were dismasted, and no 
ship escaped without considerable damage. To collect and repair 
his shattered fleet, detained the duke three weeks in the harbor 
of Corunna. 

This disaster had been announced to Elizabeth as the destruc- 
tion of the Armada — the end of the expedition. If she received 
the intelligence with joy, she did not forget her usual economy ; 
and the lord admiral received an order to dismantle immediately 
the four largest ships in the royal navy. Fortunately he ven- 
tured to disobey, offering to bear the expense out of his private 
fortune ; and directed his course across the Bay of Biscay, to 



456 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



[A. D. 1587 



ascertain the real state of the Spanish fleet. But a brisk gale 
The Armada is from the south-west compelled him to return: the 

dispersed iintl re- 

turns to Spain. enemy took advantage of the same wind to leave 
Corunna; and the English had scarcely moored their ships in 
the harbor of Plymouth, when the cluke of Medina was discovered 
off the Lizard Point. The Armada formed in the shape of a 
crescent, the horns of which lay some miles asunder, and with a 
gentle breeze from the south-west, proudly advanced up the 
Channel. The lord admiral had already formed his plan. To 
oppose might be dangerous; but he followed and annoyed the 
Spaniards from a distance. The Spanish admiral found his pro- 
gress slow and laborious ; the enemy was daring, and the weather 
capricious ; some of the ships were disabled by successive engage- 
ments ; others were occasionally entangled among the shoals of 
an unknown coast ; and the necessity of protecting both from the 
incessant pursuit of the English, so retarded his course, that six 
days elapsed before he could reach his destination and cast 
anchor in the vicinity of Calais. Several of the Spanish ships 
were destroyed by fire on the coast of France ; and the Spanish 
admiral resolved to return to Spain. He sailed round Scotland 
and Ireland, and in his voyage lost many of his largest vessels 
by storm. 

In order to see her troops, Elizabeth proceeded to Tilbury 
Fort. It was a proud moment for the English queen. The 
danger was now over; the Armada which had threatened to 
overturn her throne was struggling with adverse winds on its 
way to Spain; and the people, intoxicated with joy, expressed 
the most ardent attachment to her person. Mounted on a white 
palfrey, and bearing a marshal's truncheon in her hand, she 
rode along the ranks ; the soldiers rent the air with acclamations 
of triumph ; and the raw recruits expressed their regret that they 
had not been permitted to measure arms with the veteran forces 
of Spain. 

In 1588, the earl of Leicester died. He was one who as a 
statesman or a commander displayed little ability ; but his rapa- 
Death of Leiees- C1 ^J an( ^ ambition knew no bounds. Were we to 
ter: his character, judge of his moral character from the language of 
his writings, we should allot to him the praise of distinguished 
piety ; but if we listen to the report of his contemporaries, the 



1588 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 457 



delusion vanishes, and he stands before us as the most dissolute 
and unprincipled of men. The reader will pause before he gives 
his unqualified assent to all the statements which have been made 
against Leicester; yet, when he Las made every allowance for 
the envy and malice of political enemies — when he has rejected 
every charge which is not supported by probable evidence — 
there will still remain much to stamp infamy on the character of 
the earl. 

The defeat of the Armada had thrown the nation into a frenzy 
of joy. The people expressed their feelings by bonfires, enter- 
tainments, and public thanksgivings ; the queen, Penalties against 

. ' \. . ,. J P ,, C i- . ^ / the Catholics: nu- 

whether she sought to satisfy the religious am- merous executions, 
mosities of her subjects, or to display her gratitude to the 
Almighty, by punishing the supposed enemies of his worship, 
celebrated her triumph with the immolation of human victims. 
A commission was issued; a selection was made from the 
Catholics in prison on account of religion ; and six clergymen 
were indicted for their priestly character ; four laymen for having 
been reconciled to the Catholic church ; and four others, among 
whom was a gentlewoman of the name of Ward, for having aided 
or harbored priests. All these immediately, and fifteen of their 
companions, within the three next months, suffered the cruel and 
infamous punishment of traitors. It was not so much as whis- 
pered that they had been guilty of any act of disloyalty. On 
their trials, nothing was objected to them but the practice of 
their religion. The earl of Arundel was tried at this time on an 
accusation of having caused mass to be said for the success of the 
Armada, and upon very insufficient evidence was found guilty. 
He was not executed, however, but died after eleven years of 
imprisonment. 

From the defeat of the Armada till the death of the queen, 
during the lapse of fourteen years, the Catholics groaned under 
the pressure of incessant persecution. Sixty-one clergymen, 
forty-seven laymen, and two gentlewomen suffered capital punish- 
ment for some or other of the spiritual felonies and treasons 
which had been lately created. Generally the court dispensed 
with the examination of witnesses : by artful and ensnaring 
questions, an avowal was drawn from the prisoner that he had 
been reconciled, or had harbored a priest, or had been ordained 
2D 39 



458 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1588. 



beyond the sea, or that he admitted the ecclesiastical supremacy 
of the pope, or rejected that of the queen. Any one of these 
crimes was sufficient to consign him to the scaffold. Life, 
indeed, was always offered, on the condition of conformity to 
the established worship; but the offer was generally refused; 
the refusal was followed by death ; and the butchery, with very 
few exceptions, was performed on the victim while he was yet 
in perfect possession of his senses. For professing Catholicity, 
heavy fines were imposed on men of property. Re- 
cusants in meaner circumstances were at first thrown 
into prison. But the jails were soon crowded; the counties 
complained of the expense of their maintenance; and the queen 
ordered them to be discharged at the discretion of the magis- 
trates. From some, nothing more was required than a promise 
of good behaviour ; some had their ears bored with a hot iron ; 
others were publicly whipped. The visitation of private houses 
in search of priests is described as the most intolerable of 
grievances. It was in vain that the Catholic gentleman with- 
drew himself from the eyes of the public, and sought an asylum 
in solitude. His house afforded him no security ; even in the 
bosom of his family he passed his time in alarm and solicitude ; 
and was exposed at every moment to the capricious visits of men 
whose pride was flattered by the wanton exercise of authority 
over their betters, or whose fanaticism taught them to believe 
that they rendered a service to God by insulting and oppressing 
the idolatrous papist. 

The Puritans were also persecuted at this period. Many were 
imprisoned; some were convicted of recusancy; a few were ba- 
nished. But the queen had now grown old ; the king of Scots, 
her presumptive heir, professed Puritanical principles ; and the 
leaders of the orthodox party saw the danger of persisting in a 
course which might draw upon themselves the vengeance of the 
next sovereign. The persecution subsided by degrees ; and the 
Separatists enjoyed a state of comparative tranquillity, long before 
the death of Elizabeth. 

Henry III., of France, died in 15S9, by the hand of an assas- 
sin ; and the king of Navarre, the descendant of St. Louis, by his 
youngest son, Robert, count of Clermont, took the 

Death of Henry J . ° ' ' ' 

of France. title ot Henry IV., king of 1 ranee and Navarre. 



1596 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 459 

He became the close ally of Elizabeth, from whom he received 
much aid in his contest with the French nobles and the Spa- 
nish king ; though she was much chagrined when he embraced 
the Catholic faith. 

Hostile preparations in the Spanish harbors, in 1596, excited 
considerable alarm in England ; and for several weeks the defence 
of the realm had been the subject of daily deliberation in the 
council. Howard of Effingham, the lord-admiral, urged the send- 
ing out of an expedition to destroy the Spanish ports, shipping, 
and magazines. He was powerfully seconded by Essex, who 
despised the cautious policy of Burg-hley, and by Expedition to de- 

,..„ «, 7 ii-ii str °y the P° rt s of 

his influence, after a long struggle, obtained the Spain, 
consent of the queen. She gave him the command of the land, 
while the lord-admiral held that of the naval force; but, to re- 
strain his impetuosity, he was ordered to ask the advice of a coun- 
cil of war, and to be guided by the opinion of the majority. Af- 
ter much irresolution, and considerable delay, occasioned partly 
by the disguised opposition of the Cecils, and partly by the incon- 
stant humor of the queen, the expedition left the harbor of Ply- 
mouth. By the junction of twenty- two ships from Holland, it 
amounted to one hundred and fifty sail, and carried fourteen thou- 
sand men, of whom one thousand or fifteen hundred were gentle- 
men volunteers. At the end of three weeks the fleet cast anchor 
at the mouth of the haven of Cadiz, in which were discovered 
fifteen men of war, and about forty merchantmen. The English 
arms succeeded in Spain. Foreigners applauded the conquerors, 
their countrymen hailed their return with shouts of triumph ; 
but they experienced from their sovereign a cool and ungracious 
reception, for she had begun to evince a marked difference in her 
treatment of Essex. 

Philip of Spain having resolved on taking steps to place his 
daughter on the throne of England, Elizabeth consented that a 
powerful armament should be fitted out for the de- Expedition of 
struction of the Spanish fleet, and gave the com- Essex - 
mand to Essex, toward whom she had relented. On his arrival 
at Plymouth, he found a fleet of one hundred and forty sail, and 
an army of eight thousand soldiers, waiting his command. But 
he was destined to experience nothing except misfortune in this 
expedition. The fleet had not proceeded more than forty leagues, 



460 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1597. 



tfhcn it was driven back to port by a storm. Essex sailed again, 
but with a smaller force, and on a different destination. He 
reached the Azores ; Fayal, Graciosa, and Flores submitted ; but 
the Spanish fleet from the Indies, the real object of the expedi- 
tion, had already escaped into the harbor of Tercera ; and the 
English, with four inconsiderable prizes, and some plunder, di- 
rected their course to England. 

In Ireland, the lord Grey had at this time, by his cruelty and 
rapacity, earned the hatred of all descriptions of people. He 
Ireland at this was replaced by Sir John Perrot, who made no 
P eriod - distinction between the English or the Irishman, 

but inflicted punishment on all offenders, according to their de- 
merits. It had long been the wish of the queen to colonize Ire- 
land from England. Hitherto she had been deterred by consider- 
ation of the expense ; now, however, Earl Desmond's lands were 
granted to English settlers ; and most of the royal favorites ob- 
tained ample districts, on the condition that one family should be 
settled on every two hundred and forty acres ; and that no native 
of Irish origin should be admitted among the new colonists. 

Perrot reduced Ireland to a state of tranquillity hitherto un- 
known in its annals. The indigenous Irish observing the severity 
The fate of Per- with which he punished the injuries inflicted on 
rot them by the English adventurers, looked up to him 

as their friend ; but those who suffered from his justice sought 
to ruin him in the estimation of his sovereign. His hasty tem- 
per occasionally betrayed him into unseemly expressions; his 
words, his actions, and his friendships were misinterpreted and 
misrepresented ; and Elizabeth began to doubt his loyalty, and to 
think him capable of seeking a kingdom for himself. Perrot was 
arraigned in Westminster Hall on a charge of high-treason. That 
he was innocent of treason, there cannot be a doubt ; yet he was 
found guilty, and two months later received judgment of death. 
For six months his fate was kept in suspense ; but a broken 
heart or a poisonous potion deprived him of life after that in- 
terval. 

Among the native Irish who had distinguished themselves in 
the war against the earl of Desmond was Hugh, the son of the 
late baron of Dungannon. His services had merited the appro- 
bation of the lord Grey, and he had been rewarded by the queen, 



1600 A. D. ELIZABETH. 461 



first with the earldom of Tyrone, and afterward The battle of 
with all the rights and lands which his grandfather tory of o'-Nefl. 
Conn had formerly possessed. To this title of English origin he 
soon added, without her consent, another which rendered him far 
more respectable in the eyes of the natives. On the death of 
Tirlough Lynnogh, he proclaimed himself the O'Neil, and was 
considered by his countrymen as the Irish sovereign of Ulster. 
After many alternations of peace and war, of victory and defeat, 
a decisive battle was fought near the fort of Blackwater in Tyrone. 
Bagnal, the English commander-in-chief, with fifteen hundred of 
his followers, was slain ; the artillery, the ammunition, and the 
fortress itself fell into the hands of the Irish. The O'Neil was 
celebrated in every district as the savior of his country; and the 
whole of the indigenous population, with many of the chieftains 
of English origin, rose in arms to assert the national independence 
of Ireland. 

In 1600, Essex was tried on account of some matters connected 
with his administration in Ireland. He was found guilty ; but his 
punishment only consisted of some forfeitures. En- Attempted in- 
raged at having lost the royal favor, he attempted sex : he is executed, 
an insurrection in the streets of London in company with Lord 
Southampton and some others. They were found guilty. Es- 
sex was executed on the 25th February, 1601, in the Tower. 
Thus, at the premature age of thirty-three, perished the gallant 
and aspiring Essex. At his first introduction to Elizabeth he had 
to contend against the dislike with which she viewed the son of 
a woman who had been her rival, and a successful rival, in the 
affections of Leicester. If he overcame this prejudice, it was 
not owing to personal beauty or exterior accomplishments. In 
these respects, if we except the exquisite symmetry of his hands, 
he was inferior to many gentlemen at court. But there was in 
him a frankness of disposition, a contempt of all disguise, an im- 
petuosity of feeling, which prompted him to pour out his whole 
soul in conversation ; qualities which captivated the old queen, 
fatigued as she was with the cautious and measured language of 
the politicians around her. Contrary to the lot of most favorites, 
he had enjoyed at the same time the affection of the sovereign 
and of the people. To the latter he was known only by the more 
dazzling traits in his character — his affability and profusion, his 

39* 



462 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1601. 

spirit of adventure and thirst of glory, and his constant opposi- 
tion to the dark and insidious policy of the Cecils. The popu- 
larity of the queen, which had long been on the wane, seemed to 
be buried in the same grave with her favorite. On her appear- 
ance in public, she was no longer greeted with the wonted accla- 
mations ; and her councillors were received with loud expressions 
of insult and abhorrence. 

In September, 1601, four thousand men, under the command 
of Don Juan D'Aguilar, arrived in Ireland from Spain. They 
infirmities of landed at Kinsale, fortified the town, and called on 
Elizabeth. ^g na ti V es to join them against a princess who 

had been excommunicated and deposed by several succeeding 
pontiffs. While the deputy Mount] oy assembled an army to op- 
pose the invaders, Elizabeth summoned a parliament to meet at 
Westminster. Unwilling that men should notice her increasing 
infirmities, she opened the session with more than usual parade ; 
but her enfeebled frame was unable to support the weight of the 
royal robes ; and she was actually sinking to the ground, when the 
nearest nobleman caught and supported her in his arms. The only 
object of the minister was to obtain a supply of money for the Irish 
war; and his wish was gratified by a liberal vote. But if the mem- 
bers were liberal in their grant to the crown, they were obstinate 
Monopolies com- * n demanding the redress of their grievances. The 
plained of. great subject of complaint, both within and without 

the walls of parliament, was the multitude of monopolies bestowed 
by the queen on her favorites. By a monopoly was understood a pat- 
ent signed by her, and vesting in an individual, as a reward for his 
real or pretended services, the exclusive right of vending some par- 
ticular commodity. The commons shook the resolution of the min- 
ister, who was terrified by the execrations of the people as he hast- 
ened in his carriage through the streets; and subdued the obstinacy 
of the queen, who, though she annually became more attached to 
what she deemed the rights of the crown, yielded at length to his 
suggestions and entreaties. Sending for the speaker, she assured 
him, in the presence of the council, that she would, by proclama- 
tion, revoke every patent prejudicial to the liberties of the subject. 
The commons, happy to obtain redress without engaging in a con- 
test with their sovereign, returned their thanks in language little 
short of blasphemy; and Cecil prided himself on the dexterity 



1602 A. D.] ELIZABETH. 463 



with which he had satisfied the people, without surrendering the 
prerogative of the crown. 

In the meanwhile, the lord deputy in Ireland had united his 
forces with those of the president of Munster, and besieged 
D'Aguilar with his Spaniards within their lines at The Spaniards 
Kinsale. Tyrone watched the operations of the finally submits, 
besiegers. "With six thousand natives, and about two hundred 
Spaniards, who had landed at Castlehaven, under the command 
of Ocampo, he hastened early in the morning to surprise the 
English camp, ordering another party at the same time to convey 
a supply of provisions to the besieged. But his project had been 
already betrayed to Lord Mountjoy, and his advance was retarded 
by the anxiety of Ocampo to introduce something like regularity 
into the ranks of the natives. As the latter were crossing a 
brook, they were charged by a body of four hundred horse, and 
immediately fled. The Spaniards, abandoned by their allies, 
threw down their arms, crying Misericordia ; five hundred Irish 
were slain in the pursuit ; and the O'Neil, collecting about two 
thousand of his best men, retired into the north. D'Aguilar, 
convinced of the hopelessness of resistance, surrendered Kinsale 
and the forts in his possession, and obtained permission to return to 
Corunna with his men, their arms, and ammunition. O'Neil 
offered to submit on honorable terms ; but the pride of Elizabeth 
demanded an unconditional surrender. The lords of the council 
labored to mollify the obstinacy of the queen. After a long con- 
test she began to relent; but it was still impossible to fix the in- 
decision of her mind ; and each succeeding week new and contra- 
dictory instructions were forwarded to the deputy. Mountjoy 
was perplexed ; he knew not what answer to give to Tyrone ; and 
the time was consumed in useless messages from one to the other. 
But the moment he heard that the life of the queen was in danger, 
he sent for the Irish chieftain, who made his submission on his 
knees, renounced the title of O'Neil, and all dependence on foreign 
authority, and solicited the restoration of his rights and honors 
from the mercy of his sovereign. Mountjoy, in return, subscribed 
a full pardon for him and his followers, and promised that his 
lands, with one or two exceptions, and his former title, should 
again be vested in him by a patent from the crown. 

Elizabeth had surprised the nations of Europe by the splendor 



464 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1602. 

of her course ; she was destined to close the evening of her life 
Elizabeth over- * n gloom and sorrow. The bodily infirmities which 
whelmed in gloom, g^g suffered may have been the consequences of 
age ; her mental afflictions are usually traced by historians to re- 
gret for the execution of Essex. That she occasionally bewailed 
his fate, that she accused herself of precipitation and cruelty, is 
not improbable ; but there were disclosures in his confession, to 
which her subsequent melancholy may with greater probability be 
ascribed. From that document she learned the unwelcome and 
distressing truth, that she had lived too long ; that her favorites 
looked with impatience to the moment which would free them 
from her control ; and that the very men on whose loyalty she 
had hitherto reposed with confidence, had already proved unfaith- 
ful to her. She became pensive and taciturn ; she sat whole days 
by herself, indulging in the most gloomy reflections ; every rumor 
agitated her with new and imaginary terrors ; and the solitude of 
her court, the opposition of the commons to her prerogative, and 
the silence of the citizens when she appeared in public, were taken 
by her for proofs that she had survived her popularity, and was 
become an object of aversion to her subjects. Under these im- 
pressions, she assured the French ambassador that she had grown 
weary of her very existence. 

In January of this year she was troubled with a cold, and about 
the end of the month removed, on a wet and stormy day, from 
Her last illness Westminster to Richmond. Her indisposition in- 
and death. creased ; but, with her characteristic obstinacy, she 

refused the advice of her physicians. Loss of appetite was accom- 
panied with lowness of spirits, and to add to her distress, it 
chanced that her intimate friend, the countess of Nottingham, 
died.* In the first week of March all the symptoms of her dis- 
order were considerably aggravated ; she lay during some hours 
in a state of stupor, rallied for a day or two, and then relapsed. 
The council, having learned from the physicians that her recovery 
was hopeless, prepared to fulfil their engagements with the king 

* Dr. Lingard has the following note on the subject of the ring said to have 
been sent by Essex to Elizabeth, through the countess of Nottingham : — I do 
not notice the story of the ring, said to have been sent by Essex to Elizabeth, 
but not delivered by the countess, who revealed her treachery on her death-bed. 
Had it been true, it would have been mentioned by some of those who have 
related the occurrences of the queen's malady. 



1G03A.D.] ELIZABETH. 465 



of Scots, by providing for his peaceable succession to the throne. 
The lord-admiral, the lord keeper, and the secretary, remained 
with the queen at Richmond ; the others repaired to Whitehall. 

For some days the queen sat on a chair supported by cushions. 
She seldom spoke, and refused all nourishment. At the com- 
mencement of her illness she had said that she would leave the 
crown to " the right heir." This statement not being deemed 
sufficiently certain, she was questioned on the subject on the last 
night of her life. Some say that she declared her wish to be that 
James of Scotland should succeed to the throne ; there is, how- 
ever, considerable doubt on this point. Queen Elizabeth, the last 
of the Tudor line of English sovereigns, died on the 24th of 
March, 1603. 

Elizabeth has been numbered among the greatest and the most 
fortunate of our sovereigns. The tranquillity 

i_- i j ■ ■-• ■ c tit/} Her character. 

which, during a reign ot nearly halt a century, 
she maintained within her dominions, while the neighboring na- 
tions were convulsed with intestine dissensions, was taken as a 
proof of the wisdom or the vigor of her government ; and her 
successful resistance against the Spanish monarch, the severe in- 
juries which she inflicted on that lord of so many kingdoms, and 
the spirit displayed by her fleets and armies in expeditions to 
France and the Netherlands, to Spain, to the West, and even the 
East Indies, served to give to the world an exalted notion of her 
military and naval power. When she came to the throne, Eng- 
land ranked only among the secondary kingdoms ; before her 
death it had risen to a level with the first nations in Europe. 

In what exact proportion the merit of this result should be 
shared between Elizabeth and her councillors, it is impossible to 
determine. On many subjects she could see only IIer obstinaC y 
with their eyes, and hear with their ears; yet it is and irresolution, 
evident that her judgment or her conscience frequently disap- 
proved of their advice. Sometimes, after a long struggle, they 
submitted to her wisdom or obstinacy ; sometimes she was terri- 
fied or seduced into the surrender of her own opinion ; generally 
a compromise was effected by mutual concessions. This appears 
to have happened on most debates of importance, and particularly 
with respect to the treatment of the unfortunate queen of Scots. 
Irresolution seems to have been a weakness inherent in the con- 



4G6 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1603. 



stitution of her mind. To deliberate appears to have been her 
delight; to resolve, her torment. She would receive advice from 
any, from foreigners as well as natives, from the ladies of her bed- 
chamber no less than the lords of her council ; but her distrust 
begot hesitation ; and she always suspected that some interested 
motive lurked under the pretence of zeal for her service. Hence 
she often suffered months, sometimes years, to roll away before 
she came to a conclusion ; and then it required the same industry 
and address to keep her steady to her purpose as it had already 
cost to bring her to it. 

Besides irresolution, there was in Elizabeth another quality 
equally, perhaps more, mortifying to her councillors and favor- 
ites — her care to improve her revenue, her reluctance to part 
with money. That frugality in a sovereign is a virtue deserving 
the highest praise could not be denied ; but they contended that, 
in their mistress, it had degenerated into parsimony, if not into 
avarice. The truth, however, was, that the foreign policy of the 
cabinet had plunged the queen into a gulf of unfathomable ex- 
pense. Her connection with the insurgents in so many different 
countries, the support of a standing army in Holland, her long 
war with Spain, and the repeated attempts to suppress the rebellion 
of Tyrone, were continual drains upon the treasury. Her poverty 
increased as her wants multiplied. 

Elizabeth, while she was yet a subject, was haughty and over- 
bearing ; on the throne she was careful to display that notion of 
her own importance, that contempt of all beneath her, and that 
courage in the time of danger, which were characteristic of the Tu- 
dors. She seemed to have forgotten that she ever had a mother, 
but was proud to remind both herself and others that she was 
the daughter of a powerful monarch, Henry VIII. On occa- 
sions of ceremony, she appeared in all her splendor, accompanied 
by the great officers of state, and with a numerous retinue of 
lords and ladies, dressed in their most gorgeous apparel. In 
reading descriptions of her court, we may sometimes fancy our- 
selves transported into the palace of an Eastern princess. Yet 
while she maintained this state in public and in the palace, 
while she taught the proudest of the nobility to feel the distance 
between themselves and their sovereign, she condescended to court 
the good-will of the common people. In the country they had ac- 



1603 A.D.] ELIZABETH. 461 



cess to her at all times ; neither their rudeness nor importunity 
appeared to offend her; she received their petitions with an air 
of pleasure, thanked them for their expressions of attachment, 
and sought the opportunity of entering into private Her literary at- 
conversation with individuals. Her natural abili- taiuments - 
ties were very great; she had studied under experienced mas- 
ters, and her stock of literature was much more ample than that 
of most females of the age. Like her sister Mary, she possessed 
a knowledge of five languages; but Mary did not venture to con- 
verse in Italian, neither could she construe the Greek Testament, 
like Elizabeth. The queen is said to have understood the most 
difficult music. But dancing was her principal delight; and in 
that exercise she displayed a grace and spirit which was univer- 
sally admired. She retained her partiality for it to the last; and 
condescended to perform her part in a dance with the duke of 
Nevers at the age of sixty-nine. 

It is seldom that females have the boldness to become the 
herald of their own charms; but Elizabeth by proclamation an- 
nounced to her people, that none of the portraits 

1-1-I11-11 i ti Her vanity. 

which had hitherto been taken of her person did 
justice to the original; that at the request of her council she 
had resolved to procure an exact likeness from the pencil of some 
able artist; that it should soon be published for the gratification 
of her loving subjects; and that on this account she strictly for- 
bade all persons whomsoever, to paint or engrave any new por- 
traits of her features without license, or to show or publish any 
of the old portraits till they had been reformed according to the 
copy to be set forth by authority. The courtiers soon discovered 
how greedy their sovereign was of flattery. If they sought to 
please, they were careful to admire; and adulation the most ful- 
some and extravagant was accepted by the queen with gratitude, 
and rewarded with bounty. At her death, 3000 dresses were 
found in her wardrobe, with a numerous collection of jewelry, 
for the most part presents which she had received from petition- 
ers. To the austere notions of the bishop of London, this love 
of finery appeared unbecoming her age, and in his sermon he 
endeavoured to raise her thoughts from the ornaments of dress 
to the riches of heaven; but she told her ladies that if he 
touched upon that subject again, she would fit him for heaven. 



4G8 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1603. 



In her temper, Elizabeth seemed to have inherited the irrita- 
bility of her father. The least inattention, the slightest pro- 
Sbe is profane in vocation, would throw her into a passion. At all 
conversation. times her discourse was sprinkled with oaths; in 
the sallies of her anger it abounded with imprecations and 
abuse. 

Her familiarity with Dudley provoked dishonorable reports 
respecting her chastity. At first they gave her pain ; but her 
feelings were soon blunted, and she proved that she was become 
regardless of her character, and callous to every sense of shame. 
The court imitated the manners of the sovereign. It was a 
place in 'which, according to a contemporary writer, " all enormi- 
ties reigned in the highest degree." 

Elizabeth firmly believed, and zealously upheld the princi- 
ples of government established by her father — the exercise of 
absolute authority by the sovereign, and the duty of passive 
obedience in the subject. In her opinion, the chief use of par- 
liaments was to vote money, to regulate the minutiae of trade, 
and to legislate for individual and local interests. To the lower 
house she granted, indeed, freedom of debate ; but it was to be 
a decent freedom, the liberty of " saying ay or no;" and those 
that transgressed that decency were liable to feel the weight of 
the royal displeasure. 

Besides the judicial tribunals which remain to the present 
day, there were, in the age of Elizabeth, several other courts, 
Arbitrary insti- the arbitrary constitution of which was incompati- 
tutions. blc with the liberties of the subject: the court of 

high commission, for the cognizance of religious offences; the 
court of star-chamber, which inflicted the severest punishments 
for that comprehensive and undefinable trangression, contempt 
of the royal authority; courts of commissioners appointed occa- 
sionally for the public or private trial of offences; and the courts 
martial, for which the queen, from her hasty and imperious tem- 
per, manifested a strong predilection. Another and an intolera- 
ble grievance was the discretionary power assumed by the queen, 
of gratifying her caprice or resentment by the restraint or im- 
prisonment of those who had given her offence. 

The queen was not sparing of the blood of her subjects. The 
statutes inflicting death for religious opinion have been already 



lf,03A.D.] ELIZABETH. 463 



noticed. In addition, many new felonies and new treasons were 
created during her reign; and the ingenuity of the judges gave 
to these enactments the most extensive application. 

The historians who celebrate the golden days of Elizabeth 
have described with a glowing pencil the happiness of the peo- 
ple under her sway. To them might be opposed the dismal pic- 
ture of national misery, drawn by the Catholic writers of the 
same period. But both have taken too contracted a view of the 
subject. Religious dissension had divided the nation into oppo- 
site parties, of almost equal numbers, the oppressors and the op- 
pressed. Under the operation of the penal statutes, many ancient 
and opulent families had been ground to the dust; new families had 
sprung up in their place; and these, as they shared the plunder, 
naturally eulogized the system to which they owed their wealth 
and their ascendency. But their prosperity was not the pros- 
perity of the nation; it was that of one-half obtained at the ex- 
pense of the other. 

It is evident that neither Elizabeth nor her ministers under- 
stood the benefits of civil and religious liberty. The preroga- 
tives which she so highly prized have long since withered away; 
the blood-stained code which she enacted against the rights of 
conscience has ceased to stain the pages of the statute-book ; and 
the result has proved that the abolition of despotism and intole- 
rance adds no less to the stability of the throne than to the hap- 
piness of the people. 



470 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1603 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

gamts t\t first. 

CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. 


Emperors. 


France. 


Clement VIII. 


Rodolph. 


Henry IV. 


Leo XL 


Matthias. 


Louis XIII 


Paul V. 


Ferdinand II. 


Spain. 


Gregory XV 




Philip III. 


Urban VIII. 




Philip IV. 



Accession of James — His Coronation — Severity against the Catholics — The 
Gunpowder Plot — Arabella Stuart— The King's Favorites — Disgrace of Coke 
— The affairs of Ireland — Persecution of the Catholics — The Puritans — Bacon 
— Buckingham — Sir Walter Raleigh — Marriage treaty with France — Death 
of the King— From A. D. 1603 to 1625. 

By means of Cecil the accession of the Scottish king was pro- 
claimed before the death of the late queen had become publicly 
Accession of the known. The officers of state assembled in front 
Scottish king. Q f ^ ie palace, and proceeded thence to the cross 
in Cheapside : at both places the king of Scots was proclaimed 
by the voice of Cecil himself; and the citizens, by their accla- 
mations, bonfires, and the ringing of bells, testified their satis- 
faction at the accession of the new monarch. 

James, who was in his thirty-seventh year, lost not a moment 
to take possession of his new inheritance, and soon arrived in Lon- 
don. All hastened to meet the new monarch, that they might 
remind him of their past, and tender to him their future ser- 
vices. But James had already made his election, and confirmed 
Cecil in office. A new council was formed, into which, by his 
advice, or at least with his approbation, six Scotsmen were ad- 
mitted; but, at the same time, to balance the account between 
the nations, six English noblemen received the same honor. 

As the king entered London, proclamation was made to sus- 



1603 A. D.] JAMES THE FIRST. 471 



pend all grants of monopolies till they had heen examined by the 
council. Honors were afterward bestowed with a most lavish 
hand; nine new barons were created, among whom was Cecil, 
the secretary: and in the course of three months the honor of 
knighthood was conferred on seven hundred individuals. 

The States of Holland, then at war with Spain, sent to James 
a splendid and honorable embassy, at the head of which was 
Frederic, prince of Nassau ; but James stood on Embassy from 
his guard against their entreaties and flattery, and H °Uand. 
over his cups he hesitated not to brand the deputies and their 
masters with the ignominious designation of traitors. He after- 
ward, however, entered into a treaty in favor of the States, but no 
important results followed. 

A conspiracy to seize the person of James was formed at this 
time in England, but the conspirators quarrelled, and the design 
was at last abandoned as impracticable. A proclamation was 
issued, describing the names and persons of several of the con- 
spirators. In a few days these were in the hands of the officers 
of government, and then subjected to the most searching exami- 
nations before certain commissioners. 

The apprehension of the conspirators was followed by the king's 
coronation. He had long ago appointed for his purpose his saint's 
dav, the festival of St. James ; and though a dan- Coronation of 

"" ,. ,.■,•■, -i i James: trial of tlie 

gerous mortality raged in the city, he would not conspirators, 
allow of any postponement. The ceremony was hastily performed 
by the archbishop of Canterbury, without the usual parade. From 
Westminster the king fled into the country; but the infection 
pursued him wherever he went. In November the conspirators, 
among whom were Raleigh and Lord Cobham, were tried. 
Aware of the weakness of his case, the attorney-general, Sir Ed- 
ward Coke, had recourse to invective and abuse; but Raleigh 
controlled his feelings, and replied with a moderation which 
placed in a stronger light the indecorous and violent conduct of 
his adversary. The jury returned, with visible reluctance, a 
verdict of guilty. By the great mass of the spectators it was 
received with disapprobation. Many pronounced him innocent; 
most acknowledged that he had been condemned without legal or 
sufficient proof. 

Cobham and Grey were arraigned before their peers. The 



472 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1603 



shuffling and meanness of the one opposed a striking contrast to 
the spirit and eloquence of the other. Cobhani appeared unwor- 
thy of the pardon which he claimed as the reward of his confes- 
sion; Grey won the esteem of the very judges by whom he was 
condemned. 

Two priests were the first who suffered. Of the lay conspira- 
tors, Brooke alone was executed. With respect to the others, 

The king par- James resolved to surprise his subjects with a spe- 
cious some of the . „ ,, . . „, . i • i i i 1 -i • 

prisoners. cimcn of that kingcraft in wnicn lie deemed him- 

self so complete a master. Confining his secret within his own 
breast, he signed the warrants for the execution of Markham, 
Grey, and Cobhani, but gave private instructions to the sheriff, 
who, iu a loud voice, declared that the king of his own gracious 
disposition had granted life to each of the convicts. They were 
conducted to different prisons, and Raleigh, whose execution had 
been fixed for the Monday, shared the royal mercy in common 
with his fellows. James reaped the full fruit of this device. 
The existence of the plot was proved by confessions made on the 
scaffold ; and the royal ingenuity as well as clemency was univer- 
sally applauded. 

To the Catholics, James felt inclined to grant some partial 
indulgence. He owed it to their sufferings in the cause of his 
The kings con- unfortunate mother; he had bound himself to it by 
cluhoiiraanci Pu- promises to their envoys, and to the princes of 
ritans - their communion. But his secret wishes were op- 

posed by his advisers ; and, if he was ashamed to violate his word, 
he was taught also to dread the offence of his Protestant subjects. 
At last he compromised the matter in his own mind, by drawing 
a distinction between the worship and the persons of the petition- 
ers. To every prayer for the exercise of that worship he returned 
a prompt and indignant refusal. But he invited the Catholics to 
frequent his court, he conferred on several the honor of knight- 
hood ; and he promised to shield them from the penalties of re- 
cusancy, as long as by their loyal and peaceable demeanor they 
should deserve the royal favor. 

The Puritans relied with equal confidence on the good-will of 
the new monarch. He had been educated from his infancy in 
the Genevan theology; but in proportion as the declining age of 
Elizabeth brought the English sceptre nearer to his grasp, he 



1604 A. D.] 



JAMES THE FIRST. 



473 



learned to prefer the submissive discipline of a church which 
owned the sovereign for its head, to the independent forms of a 
republican kirk ; and, as soon as he saw himself possessed of the 
English crown, he openly avowed his belief that the hierarchy 
was the firmest support of the throne, and that where there was 
no bishop there would shortly be no king. 

The Puritan ministers were admitted to a conference. They 
reduced their demands to four heads — purity of doctrine, a 
learned ministry, the reformation of the ecclesiastical courts, and 
the correction of the Book of Common Prayer. After the bishops 
of London and Winchester, and some of the deans had spoken, 
James himself took up the argument, and displayed, even in the 
opinion of his adversaries, considerable ability. In conclusion, 
all that the ministers could obtain was, that a national catechism 
should be framed, and a new translation of the Scriptures be 
published. 

James soon met his first parliament with the most flattering 
anticipations ; and opened the session with a gracious and elocpient 
speech from the throne. But, instead of the return James meets hi3 
which he expected, he found himself entangled in first parliament, 
disputes, from which he could not extricate himself with satisfac- 
tion or credit. In the lower house a formidable party was mar- 
shalled against him, composed of the men who, about the close 
of the last reign, had dared to advocate the rights of the subject 
against the abuse of the prerogative. Bickerings continued during 
a long and stormy session ; and though the king, by his interest 
in the upper house, succeeded in averting every blow aimed by 
the Puritans at the discipline of the church, he was yet unable to 
carry in the lower any of the measures which he had contem- 
plated, or to obtain a supply of money in addition to the accus- 
tomed vote of tonnage and poundage. On one question only 
were all parties agreed. Fanaticism urged the Puritans to perse- 
cute the Catholics, and the hope of conciliation induced the 
friends of the crown to add their support. The oppressive and 
sanguinary code, framed in the reign of Elizabeth, was re- 
enacted to its full extent ; it was even improved with additional 
severities. 

The Puritans accused the king of a leaning to popery. He per- 
secuted, they said, the disciples, while he favored the enemies of 
2E " 40* 



474 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1604. 



„ ■ ■. the gospel. James hastened to rescue himself from 

Banishment of ° r • 

Catholic missiona- the charge. Another proclamation was published, 
enjoining the banishment of all Catholic missiona- 
ries ; regulations were adopted for the discovery and presentment 
of recusants ; and orders were sent to the magistrates to put the 
penal laws into immediate execution. He even deemed it expe- 
dient to deliver his sentiments in the star-chamber, to declare his 
detestation of popery, and to repeat his wish that none of his 
children might succeed him, if they were ever to depart from the 
established church. 

Fines were at this time levied upon Catholics to a considerable 
amount, and their payment enforced with peculiar severity. 

The origin of the Among the sufferers was one Robert Catesby, de- 
gunpowder plot, scended from an ancient and opulent family in 
Northamptonshire. In revenge he conceived a plan so atrocious 
in principle, and so sanguinary in execution, that it is difficult to 
conceive how it could be harbored in the mind of any human 
being — the plan of blowing up the parliament-house with gun- 
powder, and involving in one common destruction the king, the 
lords, and the commons. Catesby communicated his plan to a 
friend named Winter, who hastened to Ostend, where he met 
with Guy Faukes, a native of Yorkshire, and a soldier of fortune. 
Faukes had long served in the Netherlands, and had visited 
Madrid in the company of Winter, as agent for the exiles of the 
Spanish party. His courage, fidelity, and military experience 
pointed him out as a valuable auxiliary. He consented to return 
with Winter to England, but was kept for some time in ignorance 
of the part which he was designed to act. 

Before their arrival, Catesby had communicated the plan to 
two others, Percy and Wright, the former being a distant relation 

Progress of the an( ^ stewai 'd to the earl of Northumberland. The 
P lans - Catholics again at this time petitioned for some 

concessions ; but the king, under the advice of his ministers, was 
inexorable, stating that even if he were willing, he dared not 
make a concession so offensive to the religious feelings of his 
Protestant subjects. These proceedings following in rapid succes- 
sion, extinguished the last ray of hope in the breasts of the con- 
spirators, who then hastened to execute that plan which appeared 
to be their only resource. On inquiry, they found contiguous to 



1605 A. D.] JAMES THE FIRST. 475 



the old palace of Westminster an empty house, with a garden 
attached to it, exactly adapted to their purpose. It was hired by 
Percy, under pretence of convenience, because his office of gen- 
tleman pensioner occasionally compelled him to reside in the 
vicinity of the court. On one side of the garden stood an old 
building raised against the wall of the parliament-house. Within 
this they began to open a mine, allotting two-thirds of the twenty- 
four hours to labor, and the remaining third to repose ; and di- 
viding the task among themselves in such manner, that while one 
enjoyed his portion of rest, the other three were occupied in the 
work, which, during the day, consisted in excavating the mine — 
during the night in concealing the rubbish tinder the soil of the 
garden. The parliament was prorogued from the 7th of February 
to the 3d of October, and they immediately separated to spend 
the Christmas holidays at their respective homes. The mine was 
soon abandoned, for Faukes hired a cellar under the house of 
lords, and into it were conveyed, under the cover of night, several 
barrels of gunpowder, which had been collected in a house at 
Lambeth. To elude suspicion, these were concealed under stones, 
billets of wood, and different articles of household furniture ; and 
the conspirators having completed their preparations, separated 
to meet again in September, a few days before the opening of 
parliament. 

In the mean time the persecution, which had commenced in the 
preceding year, daily increased in severity. Nocturnal searches 
for the discovery of priests were resumed with all that train of 
injuries, insults, and vexations which characterized them in the 
reign of Elizabeth. 

Catesby was indefatigable in the prosecution of his design. 
But, though he might rely with confidence on the fidelity of his 
accomplices, he knew not how to elude the scruti- 
nizing eyes of his more intimate friends. Suspicion 
was awakened, and Garnet, the provincial or superior of the Jesuits, 
having received some general hint of a conspiracy, seized an op- 
portunity to inculcate, at the table of Catesby, the obligation of 
submitting to the pressure of persecution, and of leaving the redress 
of wrongs to the justice of heaven. Faukes, having completed his 
arrangements in Flanders, returned to England in September; but 



476 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1605. 



the parliament was again prorogued from October to the fifth of 
November. 

It is to these successive postponements that the failure of the 
plot must be attributed. None of the conspirators, if we except 
Catesby, were rich ; and his resources being now exhausted, the 
necessity of having a large sum of money at his disposal against 
the day of the explosion, compelled him to trust his secret to two 
Catholic gentlemen of considerable opulence. The first was a 
young man of five and twenty, Sir Everard Digby, of Buckingham- 
shire. The second was Francis Tresham, of Northamptonshire. 

The plan of operations was next finally arranged. A list was 
made of all the peers and commoners whom it was thought de- 
sirable to save on account of their religion, or of their previous 
piau of opera- opposition to the penal enactments, or for the favor 
tioos arranged. ^j^ t ^ e j had hitherto shown to the Catholics. 
It was resolved that each of these, if he were in London, should 
receive on the very morning a most urgent message, which might 
withdraw him to a distance from Westminster, and at so late an 
hour that the artifice should not be discovered till the blow had 
been struck. 

To Guy Faukes was allotted the desperate office of firing the 
mine. A ship in the river had been provided at the expense of 
Tresham to convey him immediately to Flanders, where he was 
instructed to publish a manifesto in defence of the act, and to de- 
spatch letters invoking the aid of all the Catholic powers. Percy 
was to obtain possession of the young prince Charles, to take him, 
under pretext of greater security, to a carriage in waiting, and 
thence to conduct him to the general rendezvous of the conspira- 
tors. Catesby undertook to proclaim the heir apparent, and to 
issue a declaration abolishing several national grievances. It was 
agreed that a protector (his name was never suffered to transpire) 
should be appointed to exercise the royal authority during the 
nonage of the new sovereign. 

Tresham pleaded most earnestly that warning of the danger 

should be given to Lord Mounteagle, who had married his sister. 

Notice of the plot ^he proposal confirmed suspicions which Catesby 

given to Lord ] ia( j f or some time cherished ; but he deemed it pru- 

Mounteagle. ' i * 

dent to dissemble, and, after some objections, pre- 



1G05 A. D.] JAMES THE FIRST. 477 



tended to acquiesce. In the course of a few days, Lord Mounteagle 
ordered a supper to be prepared, not at his residence in town, but at a 
house belonging to him at Hoxton — a circumstance so unusual that 
it excited much surprise in his family. While he sat at table, a let- 
ter was delivered to him by one of his pages, containing advice 
not to go to the opening of parliament. The king returned to Lon- 
don on the 31st of October. The next day the letter was laid before 
him; for Mounteagle had sent it to the secretary of state. He 
perused it repeatedly, and spent two hours in consultation with 
his ministers. This intelligence was communicated to the con- 
spirators, and a change was made in their former arrangements. 
Faukes undertook to keep guard within the cellar; Percy and 
Winter to superintend the operations in London ; Catesby and one 
John Wright departed the next day for the general rendezvous, 
which was in Warwickshire. 

Toward the evening [4th November, 1605] the lord chamberlain, 
whose duty it was to ascertain that the necessary preparations had 
been made for opening the session, visited the parliament-house, 
and in company with Lord Mounteagle entered the cellar. Casting 
around an apparently careless glance, he inquired by whom it 
was occupied ; and then fixing his eye upon Faukes, who was pre- 
sent under the designation of Percy's servant, observed that his 
master had laid in an abundant provision of fuel. This warning 
was lost on the determined mind of the conspirator. Though he 
saw and heard all that passed, he was so fixed on his ruthless pur- 
pose, that he resolved to remain to the last moment ; and having 
acquainted Percy with the circumstance, returned to his post, with 
a determination on the first appearance of danger to fire the mine, 
and perish in the company of his enemies. 

A little after midnight (the reader will observe that it was now 
the fifth of November, the day appointed for the commencement 
of the session) Faukes had occasion to open the The pIot disco . 
door of the vault; and that very moment was verecl - 
seized by Sir Thomas Knevett and a party of soldiers. He was 
dressed and booted for a journey — three matches were found in 
his pockets — and in a corner behind the door was concealed a dark 
lantern containing a light. The search immediately began ; and, 
on the removal of the fuel, were discovered two hogsheads and 
above thirty barrels of gunpowder. 



478 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1605 



By four o' clock the king and council had assembled to interrogate 

the prisoner. Faukes stood before them collected and undaunted : 

Faukes put to n ^ s replies, though delivered in respectful language, 

the rack, but re- gave no clue to the discovery of his associates. His 

luses to disclose ° J 

his associates. name, he said, was Johnson — his master, Percy ; 
whether he had or had not accomplices, should never be known 
from him ; his object was to destroy the parliament, as the sole 
means of putting an end to religious persecution. More than 
this he refused to disclose, though he was repeatedly examined in 
the presence of the king. During the intervals, he bore without 
shrinking the inquisitive gaze of the courtiers ; and answered all 
their questions in a tone of sarcasm and defiance. A Scottish noble- 
man asked him for what end he had collected so many barrels of 
gunpowder ? 

" To blow the Scottish beggars back to their native mountains," 
was the reply. James pronounced him the English Scaevola. 
In the Tower, though orders were given that he should he racked 
to extremity, his resolution was not to be subdued ; nor did he 
make any disclosure till his associates had announced themselves 
by appearing in arms. They, the moment they heard of his ap- 
prehension, had mounted their horses, and on the same evening 
reached their friends in Warwickshire. There was something 
mysterious in their sudden arrival, in their dejected appearance, 
and in their long and serious consultation with Sir Everard Digby. 
The apprehon- They soon fled over the country. Some were shot 

sion and trial of . • i 1 ,1 • • i 

the conspirators, in an encounter with the authorities, and some were 
taken prisoners. More than two months intervened between the 
apprehension and trial of the conspirators. At length, eight pri- 
soners were arraigned. They pleaded not guilty ; not, they wished 
it to be observed, because they denied their participation in the con- 
spiracy, but because the indictment contained much to which till 
that day they had been strangers. It was false that the Jesuits had 
been the authors of the conspiracy, or had ever held consultations 
with them on the subject. With respect to themselves, they had 
certainly entertained the design laid to their charge; but whatever 
men might think of the fact, they would maintain that their inten- 
tion was innocent before God. The prisoners received judgment 
and suffered the punishment of traitors, having on the scaffold re- 
peated the same sentiments which they had before uttered at their 



1606 A. D.] JAMES THE FIRST. 479 



trials. Garnet, the Jesuit, having previously sent to the council 
a protestation of his innocence, secreted himself at Hendlip, near 
Worcester, in the house of Thomas Abingdon, who had married 
the sister of Lord Mounteagle. The place of his concealment was 
known to Humphrey Littleton, who had not yet been brought to 
trial ; and the hope of saving his own life induced him to commu- 
nicate the intelligence to the council. Sir Henry Bromley, a 
neighboring magistrate, received a commission to proceed to Hendlip 
with an armed force, and succeeded in arresting Garnet. After an 
interval of two months, his trial took place. The interest which 
it excited appeared from the crowd of spectators assembled in the 
court: among them were the king himself, all the foreign ambassa- 
dors, and most of the members of parliament. Sir Edward Coke, 
the attorney-general, spoke for some hours. Garnet replied with 
temper and firmness ; but was often interrupted. Though a verdict 
of guilty was returned, his friends professed themselves satisfied 
with the procedings, for all that had been proved against him was 
that he had not betrayed the secret confided to him in confession. 

More than two months were permitted to elapse between his con- 
demnation and execution : a long and anxious interval, which, how- 
ever, he was not suffered to spend in peaceful preparation for tbe 
fate which awaited him. He had been examined three and twenty 
times before his trial : after trial the examinations The execution of 
were resumed. On the scaffold, according to the Garnet, 
ambiguous language of the official account, he confessed his guilt; 
but if we may credit the letters of spectators, he denied all know- 
ledge of the plot, except by confession. His pious and constant 
demeanour excited the sympathy of the crowd; their vociferations 
checked the impatience of the executioner, and the cruel operation 
of quartering was deferred till he was fully dead. 

After a long adjournment, occasioned by the discovery of the 
gunpowder plot, the parliament assembled. The lords appeared 
as usual to have no other wish than to gratify the sovereign ; but 
the commons resumed that bold tone of expostulation and resist- 
ance which had given so much offence in the last session. 
Partly, however, by promises, and partly by management, minis- 
ters contrived to elude every motion for reform, and to obtain a 
liberal vote. 

To a thinking mind, the late conspiracy must have proved the 



480 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1606. 



danger and impolicy of driving men to desperation by the pu- 
nishment of religious opinion. But the warning was lost; the 
New penal laws existing enactments against the Catholics, oppres- 

n^aiust the Catho- 

lies. sive and sanguinary as they were, appeared too in- 

dulgent; and though justice had been satisfied by the death and 
execution of the guilty, revenge and fanaticism sought out addi- 
tional victims among the innocent. Every member was ordered 
to stand up in his place and to propound those measures which 
in his judgment he thought most expedient. These in succes- 
sive conferences, were communicated by one house to the other; 
and in each, motions were made and entertained, abhorrent from 
the common feelings of humanity. 

After a long succession of debates, conferences, and amend- 
ments, the new code received the royal assent. It repealed none 
of the laws then in force, but added to their severity by two new 
bills, containing more than seventy articles, inflicting penalties 
on the Catholics in all the several departments of life. But that 
which effectually broke the power of the Catholic body in Eng- 
land, by dividing them into two parties marshalled against each 
other, was the enactment of a new oath of allegiance, for the 
avowed purpose of drawing a distinction between those Catholics 
who denied, and those who admitted the temporal pretensions of 
the pontiffs. That James, in the proposal of the last measure, 
had the intention of gradually relieving one portion of his Ca- 
tholic subjects from the burden of the penal laws, is highly pro- 
bable; but whether those to whom he committed the task ot 
framing the oath were animated . with similar sentiments, has 
been frequently disputed. They were not content with the dis- 
claimer of the deposing power; they added a declaration that to 
maintain it was impious, heretical, and damnable. The oath, 
however, as it was framed, received the approbation of the legis- 
lature, and the question as to the propriety of taking it divided 
the English Catholics for a long time. 

When James prorogued the parliament in 1606, he had been 
more than three years on the throne, and yet had made no pro- 
gress in the esteem, had acquired no place in the affections, of 
his English subjects. His consort, Anne of Denmark, had 
brought with her as her dower the Shetlands and the Orkneys, 
which for the last century had been pawned to the crown of Scot- 



1607 A. D.] JAMES THE FIRST. 481 



land. This princess could boast of some pretensions to beauty, 
to which she added considerable abilities and spirit. She hesi- 
tated not to avow her contempt for the weakness of the king; 
frequently assumed a superiority, which made him feel under 
constraint in her presence; and, on some occasions, presumed 
even to dispute the royal authority. 

James had scarcely recovered from the panic excited by the 
gunpowder treason, when he was alarmed by an insurrection in 
the very heart of the kingdom. It was provoked A new insurrec . 
by the rapacity of the lords of manors, who had tion - 
enclosed for their own use large parcels of lands which had 
hitherto been common, and had thus diminished the usual means 
of subsistence to their poorer tenants. At the first report of this 
commotion, James knew not whether to suspect the Catholics or 
the Puritans : the guards in the palace were doubled ; and the 
lord mayor was instructed to watch the motions of the apprentices 
within the city. More accurate information relieved his terrors. 
The insurgents were commanded by proclamation to disperse: 
but they maintained that their occupation was lawful; they were 
employed in executing the statute against new enclosures. This 
insurrection was suppressed, but proved the weakness of the 
government. 

Among the projects which James had formed, there was one 
upon which he had set his heart, but in which he was strongly 
opposed by the prejudices of his subjects of both nations. His 
accession had given to England and Scotland the The king's pro- 

i_ii_ • i- i i -iii ■ it J ect of uniting the 

same head; he wished to unite them in one body, two kingdoms. 
By the English parliament the king's proposal was received with 
coldness, by the Scottish with aversion ; nor could the prayer of 
James obtain from the former, nor his threats extort from the 
latter, any thing more than the appointment of commissioners to 
meet and deliberate on the question. These, after several con- 
ferences, agreed that all hostile laws between the two kingdoms 
ought to be repealed ; that the border courts and customs should 
be abolished; that there should be free intercourse of trade 
throughout the king's dominions, and that the subjects of each 
should be naturalized in the other. Though these propositions 
did not equal the expectations of James, he was content to accept 
them as a foundation for the superstructure which he meditated, 

41 



482 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1610. 



and, therefore, assumed by proclamation the new style of King 
of Great Britain. When, however, they were laid before the par- 
liament, the two first only were adopted. The king addressed the 
commons, but his eloquence was poured in vain; it only provoked 
angry discussions, and the king withdrew his favorite question 
from the consideration of parliament ; but he had, however, the 
means of establishing the naturalization of all his subjects in both 
kingdoms by decisions in the courts of law. 

For more than two years the parliament had been successively 
prorogued, through the unwillingness of James to meet the men 
who had presumed to question his prudence, and to speak irre- 
verently of his pleasures. In 1610, his obstinacy was compelled 
to yield to necessity; and he convened the houses. The com- 
mons appointed a committee to search for precedents, on the sub- 
ject of taxation by the king alone, and the discussion occupied 
the house during the remainder of the session. The opposition 
members had the better of the argument, though they had to 
contend against the eloquence and ingenuity of Sir Francis 
Bacon, the solicitor-general. The threat of a dissolution pre- 
vailed on the commons to grant a supply. 

Besides these great objects of contention, the commons pre- 
sented several petitions for the redress of particular grievances, 
to which the king replied principally at the end of the session. 
Some he granted ; to others he promised to give the most serious 
attention ; a few he unequivocally refused. 

During the protracted disputes there was one subject on which 
all parties were, as usual, unanimous — the persecution of the Ca- 

Additionai laws tholics. At the petition of the two houses, James 
agams e »- - ggue( j a p roc i ama tion against priests and Jesuits; 
an act was passed ordering, under the penalty of premunire, that 
all persons under the age of eighteen should take the oath of 
allegiance framed by his majesty, and, " for the reformation of 
married women, who were popish recusants," it was provided that 
they should be committed to prison, and remain there till they 
would receive the sacrament in the church, unless they should be 
redeemed by their husbands, with the payment of ten pounds 
per month. In May, 1612, Cecil died. His constitution sank 
under the depression of spirits which resulted from the failure 



1612 A. D.] JAMES THE FIRST. 483 



of part of his policy; the waters of Bath produced no alleviation, 
and he expired at Marlborough on a journey to London. 

While Cecil had labored in vain to supply the wants of the 
treasury, the king's attention had been occupied by occurrences 
within the circle of his own family, respecting his cousin-germ an, 
Arabella Stuart. Her descent, like his own, from Margaret, the 
eldest daughter of Henry VII., had formerly AraMlaStuart . 
taught him to look upon her as a rival; and a her imprisonment, 
suspicion haunted his mind that her pretensions, if they were 
suffered to survive her, might prove dangerous to his own poste- 
rity. He treated her indeed as his kinswoman, granting her a 
pension for her support, and allotting her apartments in the 
palace; but at the same time he secretly condemned her in his 
own breast to a state of perpetual celibacy. She, however, formed 
an attachment for "William Seymour, son to Lord Beauchamp : 
the king heard this intelligence with anger. The lovers were 
twice summoned before the council, reprimanded for their pre- 
sumption, and forbidden on their allegiance to marry without the 
royal permission. They submitted till the next interview : a 
furtive marriage took place. Seymour was committed to the 
Tower — Arabella to the custody of Sir Thomas Parry, at Lam- 
beth. Seymour escaped, but Arabella, who got away from cus- 
tody for a day, was retaken and again consigned to the Tower. 
The rigor of her confinement was increased; and her mind, yield- 
ing to despair, betrayed symptoms of derangement. In the fourth 
year of her imprisonment she expired. 

While the king thus severely punished the marriage of his 
cousin Arabella, he had been busily engaged in negotiating mar- 
riages for his son Henry and his daughter Eliza- The marriage 

, , TT ii- i -i i -i -i • of Elizabeth, the 

beth. Henry, the heir apparent, had reached his king's daughter, 
eighteenth year when he died. The princess Elizabeth was the 
only survivor of four daughters, and, after two brothers, the next 
heir to the throne. She had many suitors, among whom the most 
distinguished were the young king of Spain, the prince of Pied- 
mont, and Frederic, count palatine of the Rhine. The profession 
of the reformed faith by Frederic gave him the preponderance, 
and as soon as the articles of the marriage had been signed, he 
came to England to receive his young and beautiful bride. The 



484 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1612. 



marriage was solemnized with great splendor, immediately after 
the mourning for Prince Henry had ceased. 

From the king's children we may pass to his favorites. From 
The king's favor- tne commencement of his reign, he had surrounded 
ites - himself with several of his countrymen, but as long 

as Salisbury lived, he possessed exclusively his affection. The 
death of that powerful minister allowed James to follow his own 
inclinations, and he first selected Robert Carr, and afterward 
George Villiers, as objects of peculiar attachment ; and these, the 
creatures of the royal caprice and bounty, soon acquired the 
government of the king himself, and, through him, of his three 
kingdoms. 

Carr, when a boy, had been James's page in Scotland, and was 
of the family of Fcrnyherst, the son of one who had suffered 
much in the cause of the unfortunate Mary Stuart. He was 
distinguished with many marks of the royal favor; riches and 
honors poured upon him ; the lands which escheated to the crown, 
and the presents offered by those who solicited his mediation with 
the sovereign, gave him a princely fortune; and he was succes- 
sively raised to the honors of Baron Branspeth, Viscount Ro- 
chester, and knight of the Garter. Unequal to the task of 
managing court intrigues, he employed the aid of Sir Thomas 
Overbury, who from Carr's first introduction to the king, had 
been his guide and assistant. Overbury was committed a close 
prisoner to the Tower in d.611. The occasion of his disgrace was 
the unfortunate passion of Rochester for the lady Frances Howard, 
the daughter of the lord chamberlain, Suffolk. At the age of 
thirteen she had been married to the earl of Essex, who was only 
a year older than herself. Dissensions between them produced on 
the part of each a rooted antipathy to the other. At court, the 
young countess had many admirers, among whom were Prince 
Henry and Rochester. But the latter was the favored lover ; and 
in one of their furtive meetings it was proposed that she should 
sue for a divorce from Essex, and afterward marry the viscount. 
Her father and uncle were led by political motives to approve of 
the project, and so did the king; but by Overbury it was de- 
cidedly and violently opposed. The countess in her fury offered 
one thousand pounds to Sir John Wood to take Overbury's life in 
a duel : but her friends suggested a more innocent expedient to 



1614 A.D.] 



JAMES THE FIRST. 



485 



remove him from court, by sending him on an embassy to France 
or Russia. He refused, observing that the king could not in law 
or justice exile him from his country. This answer was pro- 
nounced a contempt of the royal authority, and the delinquent 
was committed, with the consent of his patron, to the custody of 
the lieutenant of the Tower. 

Within a few days, proceedings for a divorce between the earl 
and the countess of Essex were instituted before a court of 
delegates appointed by the king; decision was pronounced in favor 
of the divorce. Overbury lived not to be acquainted with this 
judgment. On the preceding day he expired, after a confinement 
of six months, during which he had not been permitted to see 
his friends, or to communicate with them by letter. The time, 
the manner of his death, the reported state of the body, and its 
precipitate interment, provoked a general suspicion that he had 
perished, by poison. After a short delay, Frances Howard was 
married in the royal chapel to her lover, who, that she might not 
lose in title by the exchange, had been previously created earl of 
Somerset. 

The king opened the next session with a conciliatory speech, 
which he followed up with a request for pecuniary aid, and an 
offer to redress a multitude of minor grievances, enumerated in 
the petitions of the last parliament. But little attention was 
paid to the royal message. The patience of James was now ex- 
hausted ; he commanded the commons to proceed to the consi- 
deration of the supply, and punished their disobedience by a hasty 
dissolution. The next morning the most violent and refractory 
of the members were called before the council ; Tho sale of of . 
they were told, that, though the king had given fices - 
them liberty, he had not authorized licentiousness of speech ; and 
five of the number were committed for a time to the Tower. In 
the sale of offices, which was usual at this time, that of cupbearer 
had fallen to George Villiers, a younger son of Sir Edward Vil- 
liers, of Brookesby, in Leicestershire. He was tall and well- 
proportioned ; his features bespoke activity of mind and gentle- 
ness of disposition ; and a short residence in the court of France 
had imparted to his manners that polish which James had sufficient 
taste to approve in others, though he could not acquire it himself. 

The new cupbearer immediately attracted the notice of his sove- 

41* 



486 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1615. 



reign. On St. George's feast, 1615, he was sworn a gentleman 
of the privy chamber, with a yearly salary of one thousand 
pounds ; and the next day, while he was employed in the duties 
of his new office, he received the honor of knighthood. 

The earl and countess of Somerset were, in 1615, tried for the 
murder of Overbury. He was found guilty, but only suffered 
loss of property and station. The countess pleaded guilty, but 
The disgrace of was permitted to live. The disgrace of the cele- 
Coke. brated lawyer Sir Edward Coke soon followed. In 

professional knowledge, Coke stood pre-eminent ; but his notions 
were confined and illiberal, his temper arrogant and unfeeling ; 
and he became an object of personal dislike to the king. Bacon 
began to rise to eminence at this period, and became chancellor in 
a few years afterward. 

In 1607, after a contest of forty years, both the king of Spain 
and the United Provinces having grown weary of hostilities, a 
truce was concluded. James gloried to meet an adversary in the 

Arminius and ** e ^ °^ theological controversy. In Holland the 
Vorstius. g rs t; reformers had established the Calvinistic creed 

in all its rigor. Arminius, the pastor of the great church at 
Amsterdam, and afterward professor at Leyden, had adopted 
another system, which he deemed more conformable to the bene- 
volence of the Deity, and less revolting to the reason of man. 
War was soon declared between the partisans of these opposite 
opinions. James, whose early education had imprinted on his 
mind a deep reverence for the speculative opinions of Calvin, 
viewed the controversy with interest, and was not slow in con- 
demning Arminius. On the death of that professor, the curators 
of the university conferred the vacant chair on Vorstius, whose 
orthodoxy was disputed. James, by his ambassador, protested 
against the professor, and reminded the States that the alliance 
between England and Holland reposed on the basis of purity of 
religion. The States saw the necessity of appeasing their ally, 
and Vorstius was condemned, and his followers were persecuted. 

James, as head of the Church of England, aspired to the same 
pre-eminence in his native kingdom of Scotland. The Scottish 

Religious perse- c ^ cr gy were men °f bold, untamable characters ; 
ration in Scotland. t ue j r efforts to establish a republican form of church 
government had led them to discuss the authority of the civil 



1616 A. D.] JAMES THE FIRST. 487 



magistrate. Hence, to overthrow the fabric raised by Knox and 
his disciples became the chief object of the king's policy in Scot- 
land. He made the attempt, and was apparently successful. 
With the aid of intrigue, and bribery, and force, he at length im- 
posed bishops on the Scottish church ; but the clergy and the 
people remained attached to the presbyterian discipliue. The 
Catholics in Scotland were persecuted a good deal at this period. 
Every Catholic nobleman was compelled to receive an orthodox 
minister into his family, and was forewarned that, unless he should 
conform within a given period, his obstinacy would be punished 
with judgment of forfeiture. At the same time, the prisons were 
filled with victims of inferior quality ; and so severe was the per- 
secution, that the fate of the Scottish was still more deserving of 
pity than that of the English Catholics. 

At his accession to the English throne, James had promised 
to visit his countrymen once in the space of three years. Four- 
teen had elapsed, and in 1616 he at length redeemed his pledge. 
He held a session of parliament, but did not succeed in his at- 
tempted changes in public affairs, and soon returned to England. 

As James claimed his descent from Fergus, the first king of 
the Scots in Albion, who was sprung from the ancient kings of 
Erin, his accession was hailed as a blessing by the aboriginal 
Irish ; they congratulated each other on the event, and boasted 
that the sceptre of Ireland was restored to the Affairs in ire- 
rightful national line. An act of parliament had land - 
been passed under Elizabeth to abolish the Catholic worship in 
Ireland, but it had not been in the power of a handful of Pro- 
testants to deprive a whole people of their religion. If the law 
were at all obeyed, it was only in the garrison towns, where sub- 
mission could be enforced at the point of the bayonet ; and even 
in these, the great mass of the inhabitants, the chief burghers and 
the magistrates, secretly cherished their former attachment to the 
Catholic creed. The death of Elizabeth afforded them an oppor- 
tunity of expressing their sentiments with less restraint ; and the 
announcement of that event was immediately followed by the re- 
storation of the ancient service in Cork, Waterford, Clonmel, 
Limerick, Cashel, and other places. Mountjoy, the lord deputy, 
however, collected a strong body of troops, proceeded from town 
to town, and partly by argument, partly by intimidation, prevailed 



488 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1616. 



on the inhabitants to submit. The Catholics sent over a depu- 
tation to petition for the free exercise of their religion. But James 
treated the proposal as an insult. It was, he told them, contrary 
to his conscience ; as long as he could find one hundred men to 
stand by him, he would fight till death against the toleration of 
an indolatrous worship. Not content with this refusal, he com- 
mitted four of the deputies to the Tower, where they remained 
during three months in punishment of their presumption. 

Two years later a proclamation was issued, commanding all 
Catholic priests to quit Ireland under the penalty of death ; and an 
order was sent to the magistrates and principal citi- renal laws 

-i -it i n -i against the Irish 

zens of Dublin to attend regularly at the retormed Catholics, 
service. By law, the refusal subjected the offenders to a certain 
fine ; in this instance it was also visited with imprisonment. The 
great English families within the pale became alarmed. They 
remonstrated against the punishment as illegal, and prayed to be 
indulged with freedom of religious worship; but the chief of the 
petitioners were arrested and confined in the castle; their spokes- 
man, Sir Patrick Barnewell, was sent to England and incarcerated 
in the Tower. To allay the discontent occasioned by this act of 
oppression, James issued a " commission of graces." The lery of 
fines for absence from church and the administration of the oath 
on the livery of lands were suspended till further orders. The 
old forms of tenure were abolished at this period in Ireland, and a 
royal proclamation called on the possessors of lands to surrender 
their defective titles to the crown, with a promise that they should 
receive them back in more valid form, and on more eligible con- 
ditions. The mass of the people was soon loosened from all de- 
pendence on their former superiors; but they were not on that ac- 
count more firmly attached to the crown. 

Several Irish chiefs took arms against James, but each attempt 
failed. By several outlawries it was estimated that two millions 
of acres, almost the whole of six northern counties, Two millions of 

' acres of land con- 

were escheated to the crown. James was aware, fiscated. 
that the endeavors to colonize Ulster under Elizabeth had proved 
unsuccessful; but he inquired into the causes of the failure, called 
to his aid the local knowledge of the lord deputy Chichester, and 
after long deliberation determined to make another trial on a new 
improved plan. By it the lands to be planted were separated into 



1616 A. D.] JAMES THE FIRST. 489 



four portions. The large lots were reserved for " undertakers and 
servitors/' that is, adventurers of known capital from England and 
Scotland, and the military and civil officers of the crown ; the smaller 
were distributed indiscriminately among these and the natives of 
the province ; the latter were bound to take the oath of supremacy, 
and to admit no tenant who was not of British origin. Some hun- 
dred thousand acres were planted ; and the vigor of the measure, 
joined to the intermixture of a new race of inhabitants, served to 
keep in awe those turbulent spirits that had so often defied the 
authority and arms of the English government. A parliament 
was held in Ireland in 1G08, after an interval of seven and twenty 
years. The avowed object was to enact new laws, and to obtain a 
supply for the king; but the Catholics suspected a further design 
of imposing on their necks that penal code which weighed so heavily 
on their brethren in England. An act was passed by which the 
punishment of high-treason was to be enforced against all priests 
who should remain in the kingdom after the term of forty days 
from the conclusion of the parliament; and every person harboring 
or aiding a priest, was for the first offence to pay forty pounds, for 
the second to incur a premunire, for the third to suffer death. 

The Catholics presented a remonstrance containing the catalogue 
of their religious grievances. They complained that obsolete sta- 
tutes had been of late revived and carried into exe- a catalogue of 
cution ; that their children were not allowed to study catholics. 
in foreign universities ; that all the Catholics of noble birth were 
excluded from offices and honors, and even from the magistracy in 
their respective counties; that Catholic citizens and burgesses were 
removed from all situations of power or profit in the different corpo- 
rations ; that Catholic barristers were not permitted to plead in 
the courts of law ; and that the inferior classes were burdened 
with fines, excommunications, and other punishments, which re- 
duced them to the lowest degree of poverty. In conclusion they 
prayed that, since persecution could not wean them from their 
religion, the king would adopt a more moderate course, which might 
restore tranquillity, and provide, at the same time, for his own 
interests and those of his people. After the prorogation, they sent 
the lords Grormanstown and Dunboyne in the name of the Catholic 
peers, and two knights and two barristers in the name of the com- 
mons, to lay their petition at the foot of the throne. James pro- 

2P 



490 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1617. 



nounced a severe reprimand, and proceeded to tax the delegates with 
disloyalty on the ground of religion ; but said that he would allow 
them to return to Ireland, in the hope that their future submission 
would justify his present lenity in not punishing them. 

Another proclamation soon appeared, leaving to the Catholic 

clergy of Ireland the option between self-banishment or death. 

New prociamar ;g u f however anxious James might feel to strengthen 

tions against the , -,-, . • i • 1 1 1 i 

Catholic clergy. the Frotestant interest in the island, he saw that 
additional persecution, without a larger force than he could main- 
tain, would only provoke a general and perhaps successful rebel- 
lion. He sent Chichester, the lord deputy, back with instruc- 
tions to soothe rather than irritate ; the recusants received private 
assurances of forbearance and indulgence ; and when the parlia- 
ment met again, both parties appeared to be animated with the 
spirit of reconciliation and harmony. 

James himself was now convinced that before he could extir- 
pate the Catholic worship, it would be necessary to colonize the 
New attempts to other provinces after the example of Ulster. New 

extirpate the Ca- . .7. , ., .. 

thoiic worship. inquiries into defective titles were instituted ; by 
the most iniquitous proceedings it was made out that almost 
every foot of land possessed by the natives belonged to the crown, 
and the " plantation" system was thus considerably extended. 
Such was the state of Ireland at this period. Civil injury was 
added to religious oppression. The natives were despoiled of 
their property, or driven from the place of their birth. There 
was, indeed, a false and treacherous appearance of tranquillity j 
but James had sown the seeds of antipathy and distrust, of irri- 
tation and revenge ; his successor reaped the harvest in the dis- 
cord which so long convulsed and depopulated Ireland. 

To return to England. The lay Catholics were still liable to 
the fines of recusancy, from which the king, according to his own 
persecution con- account, received a large income. Non-attendance 
crttoUc 8 Sa in S En h g- at church was visited with excommunication and 
land - the civil consequences of that ecclesiastical sen- 

tence ; and the refusal of the oath subjected them to perpetual 
imprisonment and the penalties of premunire. Another grievance 
arose from the illegal extortions of the pursuivants. Armed with 
warrants from the magistrates or the under-sheriff, they selected 
a particular district, and visited every Catholic family under the 



1619 A. D.] JAMES THE FIRST 491 



pretext of enforcing the law. From the poor, they generally ex- 
acted the sacrifice of their furniture or their cattle ; to the more 
wealthy, they repeatedly sold their forbearance for large sums of 
money. These excesses attracted the notice of parliament; a 
promise of redress was given ; and a royal proclamation proved, 
but did not abolish the evil. 

Besides the Catholics and Puritans, there was a third class of 
religionists obnoxious to the law — the Unitarians, few in number, 
but equally unwilling to abjure their peculiar doctrines. Two of 
these, by name Legat and Wrightman, were burned. Another 
Unitarian was discovered and condemned to expiate his errors at 
the stake; but James, informed of the murmurs uttered by the 
spectators at the former executions, prudently saved him from 
the flames, and immured him in a dungeon for life. In this con- 
duct he persevered to the end of his reign ; and the fire went out, 
not through want of fuel, but through the policy or the humanity 
of the sovereign. From these instances of religious intolerance 
we may turn to the civil transactions which filled up the residue 
of James's reign. While the king was in Scotland, Bacon had 
taken possession of his office. He fell into disgrace in 1617, in 
consequence of some court intrigues, and only escaped by acts of 
degradation and protestations of repentance. As the reward of 
his repentance, he obtained the appointment of lord chancellor, 
with a pension of one thousand two hundred pounds a year, be- 
sides the emoluments of his office, and the title of Lord Verulam. 

In 1619, an interesting but distressing scene was opened to the 
public by the last adventures and the subsequent fate of the gal- 
lant but unprincipled Sir Walter Raleigh. After sj r waiter Ra- 
his conviction in 1603, he had remained thirteen lonmenUria^and 
years a prisoner in the Tower; but the earl of execution. 
Northumberland, the Meceenas of the age, had converted that 
abode of misery into a temple of the muses. Raleigh was gra- 
dually inspired by the genius of the place ; at first he endeavored 
to solace the tedium of confinement by the study of chemistry ; 
thence he proceeded to different branches of literature ; and two 
years before his enlargement published his celebrated History of 
the World. At the request of Buckingham, James gave him 
liberty in 1619, but refused him pardon. 

In 1584, Raleigh had obtained from Queen Elizabeth a patent 



492 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A.D.1C19. 



which gave to him, his heirs and assigns, full power to discover 
and subdue foreign and heathen lands not in possession of any 
Christian prince. In consequence of this most ample grant, Ra- 
leigh sent to the shores of North America several expeditions, 
which proved ruinous to the projector, though beneficial to the 
country, inasmuch as they led to the colonization of Virginia. 

In 1595, he sailed in person, and the account which he pub- 
lished after his return was most flattering. He continued to 
press the subject on the attention of government, till the minis- 
ter, dazzled by the prospect, presented his petition to the king, 
and obtained for him the permission which he sought, of going 
out on behalf of the nation. The expedition, consisting of four- 
teen sail, was compelled to put into Cork, whence, after a long 
and tedious voyage of four months, during which the elements 
seemed to have conspired against the adventurers, it reached the 
coast of Guiana. Misfortunes occurred to Raleigh in various 
forms. Ship after ship abandoned his flag ; the men under his 
command mutinied and split into parties; and, after an unsuc- 
cessful attempt to slink away on the coast of Ireland, he returned 
to the harbor of Plymouth, but whether by choice or compulsion 
is uncertain. As Raleigh had attacked some Spanish settlements 
in America contrary to James's orders, he was arrested. 

James consulted the judges, who said that Raleigh, remaining 
under sentence of death, had all along been dead in law : he 
could not, therefore, be brought to trial for any subsequent 
offence; but, in contemplation of his more recent conduct in 
sacking and burning the town of St. Thomas, the judgment 
passed on him in the first year of the king might with justice be 
carried into execution. Four days later he was placed at the bar 
of the king's bench : he pleaded that his commission, by giving 
him power of life and death over others, was equivalent to a par- 
don ; but the chief-justice interrupted him, saying that in cases 
of treason pardon could not be implied, but must be expressed ; 
and after a suitable exhortation, conceived in terms of respect un- 
usual on such occasions, ended with these words, "Execution is 
granted." Raleigh, from the moment he despaired of saving his 
life, displayed a fortitude worthy of his character. His cheerful- 
ness on the scaffold was remarkable. Having taken his leave 
of the lords who were present, he asked for the axe, and, feeling 



1C20A.D.] JAMES THE FIRST. 493 



the edge, observed, with a smile, that it was a sharp medicine, 
but a physician for all diseases. He then laid his head on the 
block, and gave the signal ; but the slowness of the executioner 
provoked him to exclaim, " Why dost thou not strike ? Strike, 
man I" At the second blow his head was severed from his 
body. 

During sixteen years, James had now wielded the sceptre in 
peace : before the close of his reign, he was reluctantly dragged 
into a war by the ambition of his son-in-law and the enthusiasm 
of his people. The cause originated in a distant clime, in a 
quarrel respecting the site of churches amid the mountains of 
Bohemia ; but that quarrel was connected with religion ; and, in 
an age mad with religious fanaticism, the most trifling provoca- 
tion was sufficient to array one-half of Europe in battle against 
the other. As this subject belongs to foreign politics, we need 
not dwell on it in this abridgment. 

We now approach the downfall of Lord Bacon. Nature had 
designed him to rule, as a master spirit, in the world of letters ; 
but ambition led him to crouch at court in search 
of wealth and preferment. He succeeded ; but if 
he found the ascent to greatness slow and toilsome, his fall was 
sudden and instantaneous. He had not borne his honors with 
meekness. Vanity led him into great and useless expenses ; his 
extravagance was supported by rapacity ; and the suitors in his 
court, even the successful suitors, complained that they were im- 
poverished by the venality of the judge. The commons pre- 
sented a bill of impeachment, charging Bacon with bribery and 
corruption. This stroke unnerved him : after an unsatisfactory 
interview with the king, he shrank from the eyes of his accusers, 
and under the pretence of sickness, retired to his bed ; whence 
he wrote to the house a letter acknowledging the enormity of his 
offences, and soliciting mercy for the repenting sinner. He was 
condemned to pay to the king a fine of forty thousand pounds, to 
be imprisoned during the royal pleasure, and to be incapacitated 
for life from coming within the verge of the court, from sitting 
in parliament, and from serving his country in any office of dig- 
nity or emolument. 

Of Bacon's guilt there was no doubt; but, had he submitted 
with patience to his fate, had he devoted to literary pursuits 

42 



494 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1621. 



those intellectual powers which made hiin the prodigy of the 
age, he might have redeemed his character, and have conferred 
immortal benefits on mankind. He revised, indeed, his former 
works, he procured them indeed to be translated into the Latin 
language, and he wrote a life of Henry VII.; but these were un- 
welcome tasks, suggested to him from authority, and performed 
with reluctance. He still looked back to the flesh-pots of Egypt, 
the favors of the court; and, in addition to the restoration to 
liberty and the remission of his fine, boons which were granted, 
he solicited with unceasing importunity both a pension and em- 
ployment. With this view he continued to harass the king, the 
prince, and the favorite with letters; he pleaded his former ser- 
vices, he sought to move pity by prayers the most abject, and to 
win favor by flattery the most blasphemous. But his petitions 
were received with coldness, and treated with contempt; the re- 
peated failure of his hopes soured his temper and impaired his 
health; and he died, the victim of mistaken and disappointed 
ambition, in the fifth year after his disgrace. 

James had long sought to connect himself with France, by 
soliciting the hand of the princess Christine for his eldest son 
Matrimonial pro- Henry, and on the death of Henry, for his next 
^ ects - surviving son Charles. But Christine was already 

contracted in private to Philip, prince of Spain, whom she after- 
ward married on the same day on which her brother Louis mar- 
ried Anne of Austria, the sister of Philip. But besides Anne 
there was another infanta, Donna Maria, and her the Spanish 
minister, the duke of Lerma, offered to Prince Charles in the 
place of Christine; though there is reason to believe that he had 
no intention to conclude the match, and threw out the project 
merely as a bait to seduce the English king from his near con- 
nection with the French court. By James, however, the proposal 
was cheerfully entertained, under the idea that the riches of the 
father would supply a large portion with the princess, and his 
superior power would render him a more valuable ally. His 
views were eagerly seconded in England by Goudomar the Spa- 
nish, and in Spain by Digby the English ambassador; both of 
whom considered the accomplishment of the marriage as a cer- 
tain pledge of their future aggrandizement. By their exertions 
the chief difficulty — difference of religion — was apparently sur- 



1624 A. D.] JAMES THE FIRST. 495 



mounted : twenty articles, securing to the princess the free exer- 
cise of the Catholic worship in England, received the approbation 
of the two monarchs; and James was induced to promise that he 
would never more suffer Catholic priests to be executed for the 
sole exercise of their functions, and that he would grant to the 
Catholic recusants every indulgence in his power. Though the 
negotiation was kept secret, its general tendency transpired; the 
clergy and the more zealous of their hearers maintained that reli- 
gion was in danger from the restoration of popery; and the re- 
sult was a petition of the commons which provoked the dissolution 
of parliament. 

Two strangers, calling themselves John and Thomas Smith, ar- 
rived in the dusk of the evening at the house of the earl of Bristol, 
the English ambassador, in Madrid, on the 7th The prince of 

,, , T^r-.r, ml ,i • n -nr i i Wales goes to Spain 

March, lozo. lhey were the prince or Wales and in disguise, 
the marquess of Buckingham, who had left England without the 
privity of any other person than the king, and had travelled in 
disguise, with three attendants, to the capital of Spain. The king, 
the nobility, and the population of Madrid, seemed at a loss to 
testify their joy at this unexpected event. The prince was re- 
ceived with every complimentary honor which Spanish ingenuity 
could devise ; the prisons were thrown open ; disposal of favors 
was placed in his hands; he was made to take precedence of the 
king himself; and two keys of gold gave him admission, at all 
hours, into the royal apartments. His visit was considered not 
only as a proof of his reliance on Spanish honor, an earnest of 
his attachment to the Spanish princess, but also as a prelude to 
his conversion to the Catholic faith, of which hopes had already 
been held out, and, there is reason to believe, not entirely with- 
out foundation. In England, the sudden disappearance of the 
prince had excited surprise and alarm: the intelligence of his 
arrival in Spain, though celebrated at the royal command with 
bonfires and the ringing of bells, was received with strong ex- 
pressions of disapprobation. The match was soon broken off in 
consequence of disputes between Buckingham and the Spanish 
court. 

The king was engaged, in 1624, in a new treaty of marriage, 
which had been set on foot to console him for the failure of that 
with Spain. When Charles and Buckingham passed through 



49G HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1624. 

Proposal of mar- France, they bad stopped a day in Paris, and had 
riage between the h een admitted in quality of strangers to the French 

prince and Henri- i J o 

etta Maria. court, where they saw the princess Henrietta Maria 

at a ball. She was the youngest daughter of the last king, in 
her fourteenth year, dark of complexion and short of stature, but 
distinguished by the beauty of her features and the elegance of 
her shape. At that time she seems to have made no impression 
on the heart of the prince ; but afterward, in proportion as his 
affections were estranged from the infanta, his thoughts reverted 
to Henrietta ; and, after his return to England, the proposal of 
marriage was formally made to the French court. The French 
cabinet acquiesced ; and the king of England promised that all 
Catholics, imprisoned for religion since the rising of parliament, 
should be discharged ; that all fines levied on recusants since that 
period should be repaid ; and that for the future they should suffer 
no molestation on account of the private and peaceable exercise 
of their worship. 

In March, 1625, before the marriage was solemnized, James 
fell ill of gout. On the eleventh day he received the sacrament 
The death of * n *he P resence 0I " bis son, his favorite, and his 
James - attendants, with a serenity of mind and fervor of 

devotion which drew tears from the eyes of the beholders. Early 
on the fourteenth he sent for Charles; but before the prince 
could reach the chamber, the king had lost the faculty of speech, 
and in the course of a few hours expired, in the fifty-ninth year 
of his age, and the twenty -third of his reign. Of his seven 
children, three sons and four daughters, two only survived him ; 
Charles, his successor on the throne, and Elizabeth, the titular 
queen of Bohemia. 

James, though an able man, was a weak monarch. His quick- 
ness of apprehension and soundness of judgment were marred by 
his credulity and partialities, his childish fears, 
and habit of vacillation. Eminently qualified to 
advise as a councillor, he wanted the spirit and resolution to act 
as a sovereign. His discourse teemed with maxims of political 
wisdom, his conduct frequently bore the impress of political im- 
becility. If, in the language of his flatterers, he was the British 
Solomon, in the opinion of less interested observers he merited 
the appellation given to him by the duke of Sully, that of " the 



1625 A. D.] JAMES THE FIRST. 497 



wisest fool in Europe." It was his misfortune, at the moment 
when he took into his hands the reins of government in Scotland, 
to fall into the possession of worthless and profligate favorites, 
who, by gratifying his inclinations, sought to perpetuate their own 
influence; and it is to that love of ease and indulgence which he 
then acquired, that we ought to attribute the various anomalies 
in his character. To this we see him continually sacrificing his 
duties and his interests, seeking in his earlier years to shun by 
every expedient the tedium of public business, and shifting at a 
later period the burden of government from himself to the 
shoulders of his favorites. It taught him to practise, in pursuit 
of his ends, duplicity and cunning, to break his word with as 
much facility as he gave it, to swear and forswear as best suited 
his convenience. It plunged him into debt that he might spare 
himself the pain of refusing importunate suitors, and induced him 
to sanction measures which he condemned, that he might escape 
the contradiction of his son and his favorite. To forget his cares 
in the hurry of the chase or the exercise of the golf, in carousing 
at table or laughing at the buffoonery and indecencies practised 
by those around him, seems to have constituted the chief pleasure 
of his life. 

In temper, James was hasty and variable, easily provoked, and 
easily appeased. During his passion he would scream, and curse, 
and indulge in blasphemous or indelicate allusions : when his 
passion was cooled, he would forgive or sue to be forgiven. From 
his preceptor, Buchanan, James had imbibed the maxim that " a 
sovereign ought to be the most learned clerk in his dominions." 
Of his intellectual acquirements he has left numerous specimens 
in his works ; but his literary pride and self-sufficiency, his habit 
of interrogating others that he might discover the extent of their 
reading, and the ostentatious display which he continually made 
of his own learning, though they won the flattery of his attend- 
ants and courtiers, provoked the contempt and derision of real 
scholars. Theology he considered as the first of sciences on ac- 
count of its object, and of the highest importance to himself, in 
quality of head of the church and defender of the faith. Besides 
divinity, there was another science with which he was equally con- 
versant, that of demonology. With great parade of learning, he 
demonstrated the existence of witches. Witchcraft, at his solici- 

42* 



498 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1625. 



tation, was made a capital offence ; and, from the commencement 
of his reign, there scarcely passed a year in which some aged 
female or other was not condemned to expiate on the gallows her 
imaginary communications with the evil spirit. 

Had the lot of James been cast in private life, he might have 
been a respectable country gentleman : the elevation of the throne 
exposed his foibles to the gaze of the public, and that at a time 
when the growing spirit of freedom and the more general diffu- 
sion of knowledge had rendered men less willing to admit the 
pretensions, and more eager to censure the defects, of their 
superiors. With all his learning and eloquence, he failed to 
acquire the love or the esteem of his subjects; and though he 
deserved not the reproaches cast on his memory by the revolu- 
tionary writers of the next and succeeding reigns, posterity has 
agreed to consider him as a weak and prodigal king, and a vain 
and loquacious pedant. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

€\u\t$ lire first 

CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



Popes. 

Urban VIII. 
Innocent X. 



Germany. 
Ferdinand II. 
Ferdinand III. 

Spain. 
Philip IV. 



France. 

Louis XIII. 
Louis XIV. 



The King's Marriage — He meets his Parliament — War with France — Third 
Parliament — Assassination of Buckingham — Discontent in England and Ire- 
land New Service-book — Covenant — Riots — Impeachment of Stafford — His 

Trial and Execution — Rebellion in Ireland — Remonstrance of the Commons 

Impeachment of the Bishops— Impeachment of Members — Parliament 

levies an Army — Charles sets up his Standard — Battles of Edgehill and 
Newbury — Solemn League — Battle of Marston Moor — Defeat at Naseby — 
Surrenders to the Scottish Army — Is delivered up by the Scots — The King 
escapes — He is again taken — His Trial and Execution — A. D. 1625 to 1649. 

Charles was in his twenty-fifth year when he ascended the 
throne. His accession caused no material alteration in the policy 



1625 A. D.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 499 



of the government, for Buckingham possessed the confidence of 
the son as firmly as he had enjoyed that of the father. The first 
question which claimed the attention of the new monarch was the 
match with France ; and on the third day after the decease of 
his father he ratified the treaty of marriage. The ceremony was 
performed by proxy on a platform erected before the great door 
of the cathedral of Paris; and the duke of Buckingham hast- 
ened to that capital with a numerous retinue to bring home the 
royal bride. 

Charles soon met his first parliament, and submitted the state 
of his finances to its consideration. James had left personal debts 
amounting to seven hundred thousand pounds : and Charles meets 

,, . , . „ Al ..... his first parlia- 

tne accession and marriage or the new king had in- ment. 
volved him in heavy expenses. In the commons, the saints or 
zealots formed a most powerful phalanx; they generally fought 
under the same banner, and on most questions made common 
cause with the members of the country party, who, whatever 
might be their religious feelings, professed to seek the reformation 
of abuse in the prerogative, and the preservation of the liberties 
of the people. The session was opened with a gracious speech 
from the throne ; but, though it had been customary to give 
credit to the professions of a new sovereign, nothing was heard 
among the commons but the misbodings of fanaticism and the 
murmurs of distrust. The king was urged, as he valued the ad- 
vancement of true religion, as he disapproved of idolatry and su- 
perstition, to put into immediate execution all the existing laws 
against Catholic recusants, and missionaries. At no time could 
such an address have proved more unwelcome to his feelings. He 
had just married a Catholic princess ; he had bound himself by 
treaty to grant indulgence to her brethren of the same faith, and 
his palace was crowded with Catholic noblemen whom he had 
invited from France to do honor to his nuptials ; but prudence 
taught him to subdue his vexation, and he returned a gracious 
and satisfactory answer. They next proceeded to the supplies ; 
the predecessors of Charles, ever since the reign of Henry VL, 
had received the duties of tonnage and poundage for life. Par- 
liament voted the same to bim, but limited the duration to the 
first year of his reign. Charles received the intelligence with 
surprise and indignation; but it was too late to recall their 



500 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1625. 

attention to the subject ; more than twelve hundred persons had 
died of a plague in a week, and the parliament was adjourned by 
commission, to meet again, after a short recess, in the city of 
Oxford, where it sat but a few days ; and they were days of angry 
debate and mutual recrimination. 

In the next winter, Buckingham sailed to the Hague, taking 
with him the crown-plate and jewels, on the security of which 
The penal laws it was calculated that he might raise three hundred 
a^ains" th^Cath" thousand pounds for the king. A treaty offensive 
hcs - and defensive had been already concluded with the 

States; he negotiated a second with the king of Denmark. To 
please the Puritans, Charles now persecuted the Catholics ; the 
magistrates received orders to watch over the strict execution of 
the penal laws ; a commission was appointed to levy the fines due 
by the Catholics, and to apply them to the charges of the war; 
and a succession of proclamations enjoined all parents and guar- 
dians to recall their children and wards from seminaries beyond 
the sea; all Catholic priests to quit the kingdom against a certain 
day; and all recusants to deliver up their arms, and confine them- 
selves within the circuit of five miles from their respective dwell- 
ings. The king of France remonstrated by an extraordinary am- 
bassador; he insisted on the faithful observance of the treaty; 
but Charles, who had pledged his word to call a parliament after 
Christmas, dared not face his opponents until he had carried into 
effect the prayer of their petition ; and in excuse to Louis, alleged 
that he had never considered the stipulation in favor of the Ca- 
tholics as any thing more than an artifice to obtain the papal dis- 
pensation for the marriage of the French princess. 

At Candlemas the king was crowned, and four days later he 
met the new parliament. A committee of the commons de- 
nounced to the house sixteen abuses, as subversive of the liberties 
of the people. Of these the most prominent were, the practice 
of impositions, which had been so warmly debated in the last 
reign ; that of purveyance, by which the officers of the household 
collected provisions at a fixed price to the distance of sixty miles 
from the court ; and the illegal conduct of the lord treasurer, 
who persisted in levying the duties of tonnage and poundage with- 
out authority of parliament. 

Charles reminded the house of his wants, and received in re- 



1626 A. D.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 501 



turn a promise of three subsidies and fifteenths, as soon as he 
should give a favorable answer to their praver for Disputes between 

Charles and bis 

the redress of grievances. His pride spurned the parliament, 
condition. He advised them to hasten and augment the supply, 
or " else it would be worse for themselves ;" he repeated the 
menace, he wrote to the speaker, he reprimanded the house in 
the presence of the lords, and at last extorted the vote of an ad- 
ditional subsidy. But, by this time, the commons had discovered 
that the duke of Buckingham was the real cause of the national 
3vils ; and under this impression a resolution was taken to im- 
peach him, before the upper house, of sundry high crimes and 
misdemeanors. Pending the impeachment, however, the king, 
to protect Buckingham, dissolved parliament. The dissolution 
left him to struggle with his pecuniary difficulties. He had 
threatened the commons to pursue " new counsels :" necessity 
compelled him to execute his threat. Tonnage and poundage, 
comprising all the duties levied on imports and exports, formed 
the principal portion of the annual income. No bill authorizing 
these duties had been passed : nevertheless he ordered the officers 
of the customs to exact them in the same manner as had been 
done in his father's reign. Under pretence of the protection of 
commerce in the narrow seas, the several ports were compelled to 
provide and maintain, during three months, a certain number of 
armed vessels, and at the same time the lords lieutenants of the 
different counties received orders to muster the inhabitants, train 
them to arms, and employ them for the purpose of suppressing 
civil tumult or of repelling foreign invasion. 

Charles next resolved to raise a forced loan by his own autho- 
rity; and with this view he appointed commissioners in every 
county, instructed them to take the book of the last subsidy for 
their guide; and empowered them to extract from each individual 
the advance of a certain sum of money. The duke of Bucking- 
ham, at this time, was employed in a mission which had for its 
object to arm the French Protestants against their sovereign, and 
to make a descent upon the French coast. 

It was a strange policy which led the king, at a moment when, 
in the estimation of every thinking man, there were only two ex- 
pedients by which he could extricate himself from 
his difficulties — a peace with Spain, or a reconci- Wa^-witu France. 



502 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1626. 



liation with his parliament, to neglect them both, and, in addi- 
tion, to provoke a war with the monarch whose alliance he had 
courted and whose sister he had married. The war which fol- 
lowed has been attributed by English writers (among other 
causes) to the resentment of Buckingham, the disappointed lover 
of one of the continental princesses. Charles had bound himself 
to grant the Catholics every indulgence in his power, and yet he 
had enforced the penal laws against them, which course greatly 
exasperated the French king. At last both kings, as if it had 
been by mutual compact, signed orders for the suspension of 
all commercial intercourse between the two nations. A treaty 
of alliance was concluded between France and Spain, which pro- 
vided that during the current year, the Spanish ships of war 
should be received in the French ports, and should in return 
afford protection to the French navy; and that in the course of 
the next year both powers should unite their forces, and make a 
descent on some part of the British islands. Buckingham soon 
sailed to France. His fleet consisted of forty-two ships of war and 
thirty-four transports ; the land army, of seven regiments of nine 
hundred men each, a squadron of cavalry, and a numerous body 
of French Protestants. In a few days he appeared before La 
Bochelle; but the secrecy with which he had vailed his destina- 
tion marred his object. The Rochellois were taken by surprise; 
and said that they could make no demonstration till they had col- 
lected the harvest, and consulted the other churches of the union. 
The news of this unexpected enterprise created alarm and em- 
barrassment in the States, in the Prince Palatine, and the king 
of Denmark. They bitterly complained to Charles that their 
hopes and resources were extinguished by this unhappy contest 
between their two most powerful allies. In the meantime Buck- 
ingham published a manifesto in vindication of his proceedings. 
He declared that the king of Great Britain had no intention of 
conquest ; that he had taken up arms, not as a principal in the 
war, but as an ally of the Protestants of France. Buckingham 
failed, but Charles received him with a cheerful countenance and 
undiminished affection. He had even the generosity to transfer 
the blame from Buckingham to himself, and to give out that the 
failure was owing to the want of supplies which it was his own 
duty to have provided. 



A. D. 1628.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 503 



Parliament was soon summoned, but before it assembled the 
king again endeavored to raise taxes by royal authority alone; 
and the people were admonished that, if the money were duti- 
fully paid, the king would meet the parliament; if not, "he 
would think of some more speedy way." This attempt threw 
the whole nation into a ferment. The expression of the public 
discontent appalled the boldest of the ministers; Meeting of par- 
and the taxation commission was revoked by pro- ii ament - 
clamation, with a promise, " that the king would rely on the love 
of his people in parliament." Yet a fortnight did not elapse be- 
fore he imposed new duties on merchandise by his own authority, 
and then recalled them on the declaration of the judges that they 
were illegal. Such vacillating conduct, the adoption and rejection 
of such arbitrary measures, served only to excite in the nation 
two different feelings, both equally dangerous to the sovereign — 
disaffection and contempt. When parliament met, the leaders 
of the country party conducted their proceedings with the most 
consummate address. They resolved to grant a supply, but no art, 
no entreaty, could prevail on them to pass their resolution in 
the shape of a bill. It was held out as a lure to the king ; it 
was gradually brought nearer and nearer to his grasp; but they 
still refused to surrender their hold ; they required, as a previous 
condition, that he should give his assent to those liberties which 
they claimed as the birthright of Englishmen. The four follow- 
ing resolutions were passed, without a dissenting voice, even on 
the part of the courtiers : 

1. That no freeman ought to be restrained or imprisoned, unless 
some lawful cause of such restraint or imprisonment be expressed. 
2. That the writ of habeas corpus ought to be 

, , , , . , Resolutions passed. 

granted to every man imprisoned or restrained, 
though it be at the command of the king or of the privy council, 
if he pray for the same. 3. That when the return expresses no 
cause of commitment or restraint, the party ought to be delivered 
or bailed. 4. That it is the ancient and undoubted right of 
every freeman, that he hath a full and absolute property in his 
goods and estate, and that no tax, loan, or benevolence ought to 
be levied by the king or his ministers without common consent 
by act of parliament. 

It would fatigue the patience of the reader to detail the nu- 



504 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1628. 



inerous expedients by which Charles, during the space of two 
months, labored to lull the suspicion, or exhaust the perseverance 
of his opponents. At length they solicited his assent to the cele- 
brated " Petition of Right." This document set forth the acts 
of tyranny which had long been practised, and prayed that all 
such proceedings should cease, and never afterward be drawn 
into precedents; as being contrary to the rights and liberties of 
the subject, and the laws and statutes of the nation. Charles 
was at a loss what answer to return, and resolved to dissemble. 
His subsequent conduct, during the session, was accordingly form- 
ed on a studied plan of hypocrisy and deceit. 

On the 23d of August, 1628, the duke of Buckingham was 
assassinated at Portsmouth, by a man whose name was Felton, a 
Assassination of Protestant, who had been a lieutenant in the army, 
Buckingham. b u t Qa( j re tired from the service, because, on two 

occasions, junior officers had been advanced over his head, and 
the sum of eighty pounds, the arrears of his pay, had been with- 
held. The remonstrance of the house of commons had convinced 
him, he said, that to deprive Buckingham of life, as the cause 
of the national calamities, was to serve God, the king, and the 
country. The king, who lay at a private house in the neighbor- 
hood of Portsmouth, received the announcement of this tragic 
event with a serenity of countenance which, in those who were 
unacquainted with his character, excited a suspicion that he was 
not sorry to be freed from a minister so hateful to the majority 
of the nation. But Charles lamented his murdered favorite with 
real affection. If he mastered his feelings in public, he indulged 
them with greater freedom in private; he carefully marked and 
remembered the conduct of all around him ; he took the widow 
and children of Buckingham under his special protection; he 
paid his debts, amounting to sixty-one thousand pounds; he 
styled him the martyr of his sovereign, and ordered his remains 
to be deposited among the ashes of the illustrious dead in West- 
minster abbey. Felton underwent the usual punishment of mur- 
der, confessing his delusion, and condemning his offence. 

La llochelle surrendered, at this time, to the king of France. 
To the French monarch the reduction of this town was a glorious 
and beneficial achievement; it put an end to that kind of inde- 
pendent republic which the Protestants had erected in the heart 



1633 A. D.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 505 



of France, and enabled him to consolidate his extensive domi- 
nions into one powerful empire. To the king of England it fur- 
nished a source of regret and self-accusation. 

Parliament soon reassembled. The king, by message, ordered 
the commons to take the bill for tonnage and poundage into im- 
mediate consideration; but the patriots demanded the precedence 
for grievances — the saints for religion. The last Dissolution of 
succeeded, and many debates took place on reli- of n^memVers ^ 
gious subjects. On the subject of the Petition prisoned, 
of Right violent disputes occurred, and parliament was soon dis- 
solved. By the order of the king, the most violent of the oppo- 
sition members were singled out for punishment, previously to 
the dissolution ; and, after a hasty examination before the council, 
were committed, some to the Tower, others to different prisons. 
The attorney-general filed a criminal information against three 
of them; but they refused to plead, on the ground that the court 
of king's bench had no right to sit in judgment on their con- 
duct in parliament. Judgment, however, was given, that all 
three should be imprisoned during the royal pleasure. 

Charles next resolved to govern without the intervention of 
parliament. To strengthen the administration, he resolved to 
tempt with the offer of favor and office the most Charles resolves 

o • -\ -i t t> ■<■ i • ■' • ,i i . , t to govern without 

iormidable or his adversaries m the last parliament, parliament. 
He resigned to the prelate Laud the government of the church, 
and Laud marshalled the church in support of the prerogative. 

Having arranged his foreign disputes, his attention was next 
chiefly occupied with the improvement of the revenue. He not 
only persisted in levying the duties of tonnage and poundage, 
but augmented the rates on several descriptions of merchandise, 
and ordered the goods of the refractory to be distrained for imme- 
diate payment. He contrived to raise a considerable revenue by 
the revival of the numerous monopolies which had been abated 
on the successive remonstrances of parliament. 

In 1633, the king resolved to visit his native country. He was 
accompanied by a gallant train of English noblemen, and was 
received by the Scots with the most enthusiastic welcome. Dur- 
ing the six years which followed his return from Scotland, Eng- 
land appeared to enjoy a calm, if that could be called a calm 
which continually gave indications of an approaching storm 

2G 43 



506 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



[A. D. 1624. 



Charles governed without a parliament, but took no pains to allay, 
but rather inflamed that feverish irritation which the illegality of 
his past conduct had excited in the minds of his subjects. Nor 
can it be said in his excuse, that he was ignorant of their dis- 
satisfaction. He saw and despised it ; believing firmly in the di- 
vine right of kings, he doubted not to bear down the force of 
public opinion by the mere weight of the royal prerogative. 

In 1634, writs were issued to London, and the different ports, 

ordering them to supply a certain number of ships of a specified 

Writs were is- tonnage, sufficiently armed and manned, to rendez- 

sued ordering sup- ,, , ,, „ n -. r , „ . 

plies. vous at .Portsmouth on the first of March of the 

following year, and to serve during six months, under an admiral 
to be appointed by the king. The experiment succeeded; the 
imprisonment of those who refused to pay their share of the ex- 
pense enforced obedience ; and the council resolved to extend the 
measure from the maritime towns to the whole kingdom. Writs 
were directed to the sheriffs, informing each that his county was 
assessed at a certain number of ships toward the fleet for the en- 
suing year. The king's right to levy the tax was denied by many 
John Hampden °f ms subjects, and the claims of the crown were 
disputes the right disputed by the celebrated John Hampden, a gentle- 

of the king to levy l •> , . 

the tax. man of Buckinghamshire; one so quiet, so cour- 

teous, so submissive, that he seemed the last individual in the 
kingdom to oppose the opinion of the judges. But, under the 
appearance of humility and diffidence, he vailed a correct judg- 
ment, an invincible spirit, and the most consummate address. In 
1626, he had suffered imprisonment for his refusal to pay his as- 
sessment toward the forced loan ; a refusal which he justified by 
the danger of drawing upon himself the curse pronounced against 
the violators of Magna Charta; now, in a similar manner, he 
ventured to meet his sovereign in a court of law, merely, as he 
pretended, to obtain a solemn judgment on a very doubtful ques- 
tion; though it was plainly his real object to awaken the people 
from their apathy, by the public discussion of a subject which so 
nearly concerned their rights and liberties. The sum demanded 
amounted to twenty shillings. Hampden demurred to the pro- 
ceedings in the court of exchequer, and the question was 
solemnly argued before the twelve judges during twelve days. 
The judges delivered their opinions during the three next terms, 



1637 A. D.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 507 



four in each term. Seven pronounced in favor of the preroga- 
tive, and five in favor of Hampden. The termination of this 
great trial, which had so long kept the nation in suspense, was 
hailed as an important victory by the court ; but it proved a vic- 
tory which, by its consequences, led afterward to the downfall of 
the monarchy. The reasoning in favor of the prerogative was 
universally judged weak and inconclusive ; and men who had 
paid cheerfully while they conceived the claim might be good in 
law, parted with their money reluctantly after they had persuaded 
themselves that it was illegal. 

Charles was not satisfied with sowing the seeds of disaffection 
in England : the same arbitrary sway, the same disregard of the 
royal word, the same violation of private rights, char]es endeaTors 
marked his government of the people of Ireland, to establish bin ar- 

° r r mtrary rule in Iro 

In 1632, Viscount Wentworth had accepted the of- land, 
fice of chief governor of Ireland. Wentworth brought with him to 
the service of his sovereign, that austerity of disposition and that ob- 
stinacy of purpose which had formerly earned for him the hostility 
of the king and of his favorite. He had once been the zealous cham- 
pion of the rights of the people : he now knew no rights but those 
of the crown. Ireland, he maintained, was a conquered country ; 
whatever the inhabitants possessed, they derived from the indul- 
gence of the conqueror ; and the imprudent grants of preceding 
kings might be resumed or modified by the reigning monarch. 
With these principles he proceeded to Dublin, assured of the pro- 
tection of Charles, and strengthened by the influence of his' 
friend, Archbishop Laud. His very arrival formed a new era in the A 
B ritish court to be observed within the castle j a guard, an insti- 
-the government of the island. He ordered the ceremonial of the 
tution unknown under former deputies, was established ; and the 
proudest of the Irish lords were taught to feel the immense dis- 
tance which separated them from the representative of their 
sovereign. By means of promises, which he broke, he raised 
supplies, and his success stimulated him to carry into execution 
the other plans which he had formed respecting Ireland. Of 
these the most important, in his judgment, was the extinction of 
the ancient worship ; a work not to be precipitated by violence, 
but to be silently effected by the gradual operation of the law. 
Under the notion that the attachment of the lower orders to the 



508 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1637. 

Catholic faith sprang out of their aptitude to imitate the conduct 
of their chiefs, he had persuaded himself that if the principal 
landholders could be induced to conform, the great mass of the 
people would spontaneously follow their example. With this view, 
he restored to full activity the oppressive powers of the court of 
wards. The Catholic heir, if he were a minor, was educated by 
order of the deputy in the Protestant faith ; if of age, he was 
refused the possession of his lands till he had abjured his religion 
by taking the oath of supremacy. The abolition of this grievance 
had been solemnly promised by Charles in 1628 ; but Wentworth 
was careful to prevent the confirmation of the promise. 

Wentworth next arranged a most extensive plan of spoliation, 

and claimed the whole province of Connaught in right of the 

Jury imprisoned sovereign. In the county of lloscommon, a iury 

for resisting the ° ...,*',: , . , 

crown. ot freeholders, intimidated by his menaces and 

presence, returned a verdict in favor of the demands of the 
crown ; the same was the result in those of Mayo, Sligo, Clare, 
and Limerick ; but the men of Galway refused to surrender the 
inheritance of their fathers. The jury found against the crown, 
and Wentworth immediately fined the sheriff" one thousand pounds 
for returning such an inquest, and sent the members before the 
castle-chamber in Dublin, where they were severally fined four 
thousand pounds, and consigned to prison during his pleasure. 
Wentworth was of a temper j ealous, haughty, and impatient of con- 
tradiction. The slightest resistance to his will, the semblance of con- 
tempt of his authority, was sufficient to kindle his resentment; and 
from that moment the unfortunate offender was marked out for ruin. 
Much, however, as the people of Ireland and England were 
aggrieved, they betrayed no disposition to oppose open force to 
Opposition to the the unjust pretensions of their sovereign; it was 
land. in Scotland that the flame was kindled, which 

gradually spread, till it involved the three kingdoms in one com- 
mon conflagration. When Charles returned from his native 
country in 1633, he brought back with him strong feelings of re- 
sentment against some lords who had ventured to oppose his 
favorite measures in the Scottish parliament. Laud labored stre- 
nuously to establish the English liturgy in Scotland; but his 
reasoning and influence were compelled to yield to the obstinacy 
of the Scottish bishops, who deemed it a disgrace to their coun- 



1637 A. D.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 509 



try to owe either the service, or the discipline of their church to 
their English neighbors. To four of the prelates, whose princi- 
ples or subserviency had lately raised them to the episcopal dig- 
nity, the king assigned the task of compiling a new code of eccle- 
siastical law, and a new form of public worship. Charles had no 
right to impose on the nation a new form of worship, or new rules 
of conduct abhorrent from its religious habits and persuasion. 
He was not by law the head of the Scottish Church. The mo- 
ment the liturgy was announced, woes and curses were showered 
from every pulpit on the heads of the men who sought " to gag 
the spirit of God, and to depose Christ from his throne, by be- 
traying to the civil magistrate the authority of the kirk." Riots 
took place ; but the ministers of the crown in Scotland were slow 
to engage in a contest in which they felt no interest, and the 
issue of which seemed more than doubtful. 

But the leaders of the anti-episcopal party adopted a new and 
most efficient expedient. Under their auspices, a form of cove- 
nant was devised with the view of uniting the 
whole nation into one dissenting body. By orders 
from the committees, every Scotsman who valued the pure faith 
and discipline of the kirk, was summoned to the capital to ob- 
serve a solemn fast, as a preparation for the renewal of the cove- 
nant between Israel and God; and on the appointed day, zealots 
of each sex, and of every rank and profession, from the High- 
lands as well as the Lowlands, crowded to the church of the Gray 
Friars. The service began with a fervent prayer from Hender- 
son, the minister, and an exciting speech from Lord Loudon, the 
best of their orators: the congregation rose; and all, with arms 
outstretched to heaven, swore to the contents of the covenant. 
From the capital the enthusiasm quickly diffused itself to the ex- 
tremities of the kingdom; where good-will was wanting, intimi- 
dation was applied; and the covenanters, in every county but 
that of Aberdeen, outnumbered their opponents in the propor- 
tion of a hundred to one. The royal authority, though still ac- 
knowledged, was no longer obeyed. 

James, on his accession to the English throne, had established 
a privy council of Scotsmen, charged exclusively with the affairs 
of their native country. By the advice of this 

•< n, ,1 ,-|_ -i j i , • i Preparation for 

council, alter three months had been spent in de- war on both sides. 

43* 



510 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1637. 



liberation, Charles resolved, in opposition to the remonstrances 
of his council in Scotland, to suppress the covenant by open 
force. He at first, however, oifered concessions; but the Scot- 
tish leaders refused to accept them, for they received information 
that no reliance was to be placed on this apparent change of dis- 
position in the monarch; and that his object was to lull them 
into a fatal security, till he had completed his preparations for 
war. By the general assembly, episcopacy was abolished; and 
the bishops themselves, with the ministers, the known friends 
of the bishops, were excommunicated or deprived. Charles 
by proclamation annulled these proceedings; while the Scots 
received them with transports of joy, and celebrated a day of 
national thanksgiving. While the Covenanters thus steadily 
pursued the abolition of episcopacy, they were not inattentive to 
the danger which threatened them from England. Their prepa- 
rations for war kept pace with those of their sovereign. Every 
man capable of bearing arms was regularly trained; officers who 
had grown old in actual service hastened from the Swedish and 
Dutch armies to animate and exercise their countrymen; and 
arms and ammunition were furnished by the Scottish merchants 
in Holland. 

Charles could not but remark the visible indifference of his 
English subjects. To the majority, discontented with the illegal 
tenor of his government, it was a matter of little concern, per 
haps of real satisfaction, that the Scots refused submission to his 
mandates; the Puritans openly condemned the war as an impious 
crusade against the servants of God; and the only persons who 
seemed to interest themselves in the cause were the more ortho- 
Negotiations pre- dox of the clergy, and the few men of wealth and 
vent hostilities. importance who depended on the favor of the 
court. The war soon began in Scotland, and the king was un- 
successful in all directions. Every day brought him intelligence 
of some new disaster or disappointment. Charles repaired to 
York, where he proposed to the lords who accompanied him an 
oath of allegiance, binding them to oppose all seditions, conspira- 
cies, and covenants against his person and dignity. From York, 
Charles advanced to the neighborhood of Berwick. Leslie, the 
Scottish general, had fixed his head-quarters at Dunglass. That 
general called for every fourth man from each presbytery; and 



1639 A.D.I CHARLES THE FIRST. 511 



though the call was not exactly obeyed, twelve thousand volun- 
teers crowded to his standard. To this army, animated by the 
most powerful motives that can influence the human breast, 
Charles could oppose an equal, perhaps superior number of men ; 
but they were men who felt no interest in the cause for which 
they were destined to fight, who disapproved of the arbitrary 
proceedings of their sovereign, and who had been warned that 
the suppression of the Scottish Covenanters could only serve to 
rivet those chains which had been forged for themselves. Nego- 
tiations, however, took place, and Charles returned to London. 

He, however, resolved on a second campaign against Scot- 
land; but wanted money. By the advice of Wentworth, it was 
resolved to apply, in the first instance, to the libe- The Irish pariia- 
rality of the Irish parliament. Before his depar- plies. 
ture, to reward his past services and to give greater weight to his 
efforts, he was created earl of Strafford, and appointed lord lieu- 
tenant of Ireland. There no man dared openly to oppose his 
pleasure; the two houses voted a grant of four subsidies; and at 
his command added a promise of two more, if they should be 
found necessary. Strafford then returned to assist at the coun- 
cils of his sovereign, having left orders for the immediate levy 
of an army of eight thousand men. 

In England the meeting of a parliament, after an interruption 
of many years, was hailed with expressions of joy, and the peo- 
ple expected from its labors the redress of those The meeting of 
grievances under which -they had labored, and the P arhament - 
vindication of those liberties which had been violated. Charles 
met the two houses without any sanguine expectations of suc- 
cess; but he called upon them to grant him an ample and 
speedy supply; and to demonstrate to them the justice of his 
cause, exhibited an intercepted letter, subscribed by seven of the 
principal Covenanters, and soliciting the aid of the king of 
France. The result, however, proved that the commons had 
inherited the sentiments and policy of their predecessors. They 
took no notice of the prayers or the wants of the sovereign ; but 
gave their whole attention to the national grievances. Charles 
viewed the apathy of the commons at first with impatience, after- 
ward with alarm. It was in vain that he endeavored to quicken 



512 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1640. 



their proceedings by an earnest and conciliatory speech at White- 
hall; and his request to the lords, that they would not listen to 
the grievances of the commons till the royal wants had been sup- 
plied, was productive of a fatal dispute between the two houses. 

Parliament dis- Finding the commons determined, Charles dis- 
solved, solved parliament. Riots took place in London. 
The king passed some days in the deepest anxiety, looking with 
impatience for the arrival of troops from the army; and behold- 
ing, evening after evening, from his palace, the illegal proceed- 
ings of the mob, and the conflagration of houses on the opposite 
bank of the river. At last, he found himself at the head of six 
thousand men. 

In Scotland, the Covenanters acted with unanimity and enthu- 
siasm. They had been careful to keep in full pay the officers 

The Pcots invade whom in the last campaign they had invited from 
England. Germany; the men who had been disbanded after 

the negotiation with the king, cheerfully returned to their co- 
lours; and many individuals, on the security of noblemen and 
merchants, sent their plate to the mint that they might supply 
money for the weekly pay of the soldiers. When Charles com- 
menced his preparations, his enemies were ready to act. Leslie 
collected his army at Chouscley Wood, near Dunse; during three 
weeks the men were daily trained to martial exercises, and en- 
couraged by sermons and prayers; and, August 20th, he crossed 
the Tweed with twenty-three thousand infantry and three thou- 
sand cavalry. The lord Conway had arrived in Northumberland 
to take the command, with the rank of general of the horse. 
He dared not oppose an inferior and undisciplined force to the 
advance of the enemy; but received a peremptory order from 
the earl of Strafford, the commander-in-chief under the king, to 
dispute the passage of the Tyne. The works which he hastily 
erected, in Stella-haugh, were demolished by the Scottish artil- 
lery; a division led by Leslie's guard, passed at Newburn ford, 
and was speedily driven back into the river by a charge of six 
troops of horse; but these in their turn were checked by the fire 
from a battery; the Scots a second time formed on the right 
bank, and the whole English army retired — the horse toward 
Durham, the infantry, four thousand in number, to Newcastle. 



1641 A. D.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 513 



Thence they hastened by forced marches to the borders of* York- 
shire, and the two northern counties remained in the undisputed 
possession of the conquerors. 

Charles summoned a parliament, which he met with the most 
lively apprehensions. The task of leading the op- Parliament im- 
position was assumed by Pym, Hampden, and St. mon ^\. 
John. The Catholics, according to custom, were the first to feel 
their enmity. Charles, harassed with petitions to relieve his 
Protestant subjects from their terrors, gave orders that all Ca- 
tholics should quit the court, and be expelled from the army ; that 
the houses of recusants should be searched for arms , and that 
the priests should be banished from the realm within thirty days. 
Both houses concurred in pronouncing the commissions for the 
levy of ship-money, and all the proceedings consequent on those 
commissions, to be illegal. Impeachments against Laud and 
Strafford were next resolved on, and they were taken into custody. 

Strafford's trial soon took place: Westminster The trial of straf- 
Hall was fitted up for the purpose. On each side ford - 
of the lords sat the commons on elevated benches as a committee 
of their house, and near them the Scottish commissioners with the 
Irish deputies, the bearers of the remonstrance. Two private 
boxes behind the throne were prepared for the accommodation of 
the king and queen, whose presence, it was hoped, would act as 
a check on the forwardness of the witnesses and the violence of 
the managers. Near them, a gallery had been erected, which was 
daily crowded with ladies of the highest rank. The proceedings 
were conducted during thirteen days. 

The parliament, to secure Strafford's death, brought in a bill of 
attainder ; the king reluctantly signed it, and on the 
12th May, 1641, the unfortunate nobleman was led 
to execution. He had requested Archbishop Laud, also a prisoner 
in the Tower, to impart to him his blessing from the window of 
his cell. The prelate appeared : he raised his hand, but grief 
prevented his utterance, and he fell senseless on the floor. On 
the scaffold the earl behaved with composure and dignity. At the 
first stroke his head was severed from the body. The spectators, 
said to have amounted to one hundred thousand persons, behaved 
with decency ; but in the evening the people displayed their joy 



514 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 164L 

by bonfires, and demolished the windows of those who refused to 
illuminate. 

Thus, after a long struggle, perished the earl of Strafford, the 

character of most & hle and devoted champion of the claims of 
Strafford. t h e cr own, and the most active and formidable 

enemy to the liberties of the people. By nature he was stern and 
imperious, choleric and vindictive. In authority, he indulged 
these passions without regard to the provisions of law or the forms 
of justice ; and, from the moment that he attached himself to 
the court, he labored (bis own letters prove it) to exalt the power 
of the throne on the ruin of those rights of which he once had 
been the most strenuous advocate. As president of the North, he 
first displayed his temper and pretensions ; in Ireland, he trampled 
with greater freedom on the liberties of the people ; and, after the 
rupture with the Scots, he ceased not to inculcate in the council 
that the king had a right to take what the parliament had unduti- 
fully refused to grant. Yet, numerous and acknowledged as his 
offences were, the propriety of his punishment has been justly 
questioned. Perhaps it may be difficult to decide between the 
conflicting arguments which have been advanced ; but there ap- 
pears little doubt that, in a well-regulated state, it is better to 
allow to offenders any benefit which they may derive from the 
deficiency of the law, than to bring them to punishment by a de- 
parture from the sacred forms of justice. 

Charles, soon afterward, visited Scotland peaceably, and was 
received with honor by a deputation from the estates at his en- 
trance into Edinburgh. He was aware that in Scotland a reaction 
had long been working in the minds of moderate man, who, satis- 
fied with the concessions already made by the sovereign, began to 
look with suspicion on the obstinacy and pretensions of the po- 
pular leaders. A party had some time before been secretly formed 
under the auspices of the earl of Montrose, who opened a corre- 
spondence with the king. Montrose, however, and several others, 
being suspected by their countrymen, where thrown into prison. 
The king procured their release, and, after some arrangements with 
the Covenanters, returned to England. 

The proceedings of the English parliament and the success of 
Scottish Covcnantei-s had created a deep and general sensation in 
Ireland. Could that he blamable in Irishmen which was so me- 



1641 A. D.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 515 



ritorious in others ? Had not they an equal claim to extort the 
redress of grievances, and to repel religious persecution ? These 
questions were asked in every company; and, in Discontent in Ire . 
reply, it was observed that new shackles had been land - 
forged for the national rights, new clangers prepared for the na- 
tional faith ) that the English parliament had advanced pretensions 
to legislate for Ireland, and that the leaders, both in England and 
Scotland, in all their speeches, publications, and remonstrances, 
displayed the most hostile feelings toward the Catholic worship, 
and a fixed determination to abolish it, wherever their influence 
should extend. Though the two races were intermixed by mar- 
riages, though they professed, in opposition to the law, the same 
religion, there still remained a marked difference in their habits 
and feelings, which prevented any cordial co-operation between 
them. The gentlemen of the pale persuaded the Irish to imitate 
the conduct of the English parliament. Inquiries were instituted 
into the abuses of government, and commissioners were sent to 
London to demand from the justice of Charles that toleration, the 
purchase-money of which he had received many years before. It 
was plainly his interest to conciliate his Irish subjects. He gave 
them a most flattering reception, bestowed particular marks of 
attention on Lord Gormanstown, the head of the deputation, and 
bade them hope for full redress from his equity and affection. 
Disturbances, however, spread throughout the island, and whether 
it was that the lords justices felt themselves unequal to the station 
which they held, or that they allowed the insurrection to grow for 
the sake of the forfeitures which must follow its suppression, their 
conduct displayed no energy. They despatched information to 
the king and the lord lieutenant, (then in London,) fortified the 
city of Dublin, and, secure within its walls, awaited the arrival of 
succors from England. In the mean time the open country 
was abandoned to the mercy of the insurgents; who, mindful of 
their own wrongs and those of their fathers, burst into the Eng- 
lish plantations, seized the arms and the property of the inha- 
bitants, and restored the lands to the former proprietors or to their 
descendants. The fugitives with their families sought in crowds 
an asylum in the nearest garrisons, where they languished under 
that accumulation of miseries which such a state of sudden de- 
stitution must invariably produce. 



516 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1G41. 

In defence of their proceedings, the rebel chieftains published 
a declaration that they had taken up arms in support of the royal 
prerogative, and for the safety of their religion, against the ma- 
chinations of a party in the English parliament, which had in» 
vaded the rights of the crown, intercepted the graces granted by 
the king to his Irish subjects, and solicited subscriptions in Ire- 
land to a petition for the total extirpation of the Protestant epis- 
copacy and of the Catholic worship. 

The disputes between Charles and his parliament continued, 
and at last the king adopted the bold but hazardous expedient of 

The king im- impeaching of high-treason the lord Kimbolton, 
members oT par- IIolles > Hasleri g> p y m > Hampden, and Stroud, all 
liament. distinguished members of the country party. He 

charged them with having conspired to alienate from him the 
affections of his people, to excite disobedience in the army, to sub- 
vert the rights of parliament, and to extort the consent of the 
majority by the influence of mobs and terror ; and with having, 
moreover, invited a foreign force into the kingdom from Scotland, 
and actually levied war against the sovereign. The king himself, 
attended by his guards, and a number of officers with their swords, 
proceeded to the house of commons. His purpose was to arrest 
the accused members ; but his secret had been betrayed, and the 
objects of his search had already left the house. The king, hav- 
ing stationed his attendants at the door, entered with his nephew, 
Charles, by his side. Having taken the chair, he looked around 
him, and, not seeing the persons whom he sought, inquired of the 
speaker if they were present. The speaker falling on his knees, 
replied that he was merely the organ of the house, and that he 
had neither ears to hear, nor tongue to speak, but as he was di- 
rected by it. The king, seating himself, said that in cases of 
treason there was no privilege ; that it was not his intention to 
offer violence, but to proceed against the accused by due course 
of law ; that, if the birds had not flown, he would have taken 
them himself; as the case was, he expected from the loyalty of 
the house that they would send them to him, or he should have 
recourse to other expedients. He was heard in silence, and re- 
tired amid low but distinct murmurs of "Privilege, privilege." 

This unadvised and abortive attempt completed the degradation 
of the unfortunate monarch. It was equally condemned by his 



1641 A. D.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 517 



friends and enemies ; and it furnished the latter with the means 
of working on the passions of their adherents, and 

» ... ,i , i , • o The accused rnem- 

oi exciting them to a state bordering upon trenzy. bers return in tri- 
The commons adjourned for a week; but during ump ' 
this recess a permanent committee sat in the city to concert matters 
with their partisans, and to arrange a new triumph over the fallen 
authority of the sovereign. On the appointed day the five accused 
members proceeded by water to the house. They were escorted by 
two thousand armed mariners in boats, and by detachments of 
the train-bands with eight pieces of cannon on each bank of the 
river ; and were received on landing by four thousand horsemen 
from Buckinghamshire, who had come to assert the innocence, 
and to demand justice for the libel on the character of Hampden, 
their representative. The air resounded with shouts of joy and 
with military music ; and, as the procession passed by Whitehall, 
the populace indulged in the most unseemly vociferations against 
the misguided monarch. But Charles was no longer there. 
Distrusting the object, and aware of the power of the opponents, 
he had, on the preceding evening, fled with his family to 
Hampton Court. 

It now became evident that the hope of a reconciliation was at 
an end, and that both parties resolved to stake the issue of the 
contest on the sword. Aware that, by his irregular 

. , , , , P iii- Charles apologizes. 

entrance into the house ot commons, he had given 
the vantage-ground to his adversaries, Charles attempted to re- 
trace his steps by apologizing for his conduct, by promising to" 
proceed against the five members by due course of law, by aban- 
doning the prosecution altogether, and proposing that they should 
accept a general pardon. But these concessions, instead of molli- 
fying, strengthened their obstinacy. They rejected every offer, 
and insisted that, to atone for so flagrant a breach of privilege, 
he should deliver up the names of his advisers. He scorned to 
return an answer. To probe, however, the sincerity of their de- 
clarations, he made to them a request that they should lay before 
him, in one view, a summary of all the enactments which they 
required, respecting his authority and revenue, their own privi- 
leges, the rights of the people, and the reformation of the church, 
with a promise that his answer should prove him one of the most 
easy and benevolent of monarch s. To such a proposal it would 

U 



518 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1641. 



have been impolitic to return a direct refusal. But they grasped 
at the opportunity to effect what they had long sought, and what 
they had previously demanded as a ground of confidence, that the 
government of the forts, and the command of the army and navy, 
should be intrusted to officers nominated by the two houses of 
parliament. The king was startled by this answer, and endea- 
vored to temporize. 

A long succession of declarations and answers served to occupy 
the attention of the public during several months. In this war 
of words, these appeals of the contending parties to the good 
sense of the people, the king had plainly the advantage over his 
adversaries. But the real object of Charles was, like that of his 
opponents, to prepare for war. He had, in February, sent his 
queen to Holland, under the pretence of conducting his daughter 
Mary to her husband, but for the purpose of soliciting aid from 
foreign powers, of raising money on the valuable jewels which 
she had carried with her, and of purchasing arms and ammuni- 
tion. In the mean time he gradually withdrew himself from the 
vicinity of the metropolis, first to Newmarket, then into the more 
northern counties, and at last fixed his residence in York. A 
body-guard was raised for him by the neighboring gentlemen, to 
form in due time the nucleus of a more numerous army. 

In Ireland, a national association was formed, and the mem- 
bers, in imitation of the Scottish Covenanters, bound themselves 
National associa- ty a common oat ^ to maintain the free and public 
tion in Ireland. exercise of the Catholic worship, to bear true faith 
and allegiance to King Charles, and to defend him against all 
who should endeavor to subvert the royal prerogative, the power 
of parliament, or the just rights of the subject. They resolved 
never to lay "down their arms till they had obtained an acknow- 
ledgment of the independence of the Irish on the English parlia- 
ment, the repeal of all degrading disqualifications on the ground 
of religion, the free exercise of the Catholic worship, the confirma- 
tion of toleration, and the exclusion of all but natives from civil 
and military offices within the kingdom. The Scots, they added 
in a petition to the king, whose grievances were certainly less 
numerous, and whose church had been less persecuted, had ap- 
pealed to the sword in defence of their religion and liberties; 
and their conduct had been ultimately approved of both by him 



1642 A. D.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 519 



and the parliament of England ; whence they inferred that what 
was commendable in Scotchmen could not, by impartial judges, 
be considered as blamable in Irishmen. In Ulster, the natives, 
looking on the planters as intruders and robbers, had stripped 
them of their property, and chased them from their homes, and 
in some instances had taken their lives. On the other hand, the 
military, acting by the orders of the council, executed, where 
they had the power, martial law on the insurgents, laying waste 
the country, and slaying the fugitives without distinction or 
mercy. As early as October 27, 1641, the English garrisons 
began to plunder the lands of the Irish in Ulster. 

In England, the two houses had already voted a levy of sixteen 
thousand men in opposition to the king, who intended to levy war 
against the parliament. On the other hand, the king was not 
idle. Numbers of the nobility, and gentry, and clergy, with the 
members of both universities, lent him money. New attempts at 
Negotiations were, however, again attempted. The negotiation, 
parliament demanded many matters restricting the prerogative ; 
and that Catholic peers should be deprived of their votes until 
they had conformed; and the children of Catholics be brought 
up in the Protestant faith. Charles replied that he was willing 
to concur in the forced education of Catholic children, to compel 
the Catholic peers to give their proxies to Protestants, and to 
abolish all innovations in religion ; but he could not consent to 
the rest of the demands. 

Charles, finding that the parliament had commenced to de- 
nounce his proclamations, resolved on hostile measures. Having 
sounded the disposition of the Yorkshire gentlemen, he summoned 
all his " loving subjects" north of the Trent, and within twenty 
miles to the south of that river, to meet him in arms*at Notting- 
ham on the 22d of August, 1642. On that day, Koyal gtandurd 
the royal standard, on which was a hand pointing unfurled. 
to a crown, with this motto, " Give to Caesar his due," was car- 
ried by a guard of six hundred foot from the castle into a large 
field; the king followed with a retinue of two thousand men; 
and the inhabitants crowded around to hear the proclamation 
read by the herald-at-arms. This ceremony, called the raising 
of the standard, was deemed equivalent to a declaration of hos 



520 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1642. 



tilities ; and thus was the country led into the most direful of 
national calamities — a civil war. 

From Nottingham, Charles despatched deputies to London, the 
bearers of a proposal that commissioners should be appointed on 
Both parties ap- both sides, with fu^ powers to treat of an accom- 
pcai to the sword. mo dation. The two houses, assuming a tone of 
conscious superiority, replied that they could receive no message 
from a prince who had raised bis standard against his parliament. 
He next conjured them to think of the blood that would be shed, 
and to remember that it would lie at their door ; they retorted 
the charge ; he was the aggressor, and his would be the guilt. 
With this answer vanished every prospect of peace ; both parties 
appealed to the sword ; and, within a few weeks, the flames of civil 
war were lighted up in every part of the kingdom. 

There was one class of men on whose services the king might 
rely with confidence — the Catholics — who, alarmed by the fierce 
intolerance and the severe menaces of the parliament, saw that 
their own safety depended on the ascendency of the sovereign. 
But Charles hesitated to avail himself of this resource. His ad- 
versaries had allured the zealots to their party, by representing 
the king as the dupe of a popish faction, which labored to sub- 
vert the Protestant, and to establish on its ruins the popish wor- 
ship. While higher classes repaired with their dependants to 
the support of the king, the call of the parliament was cheerfully 
obeyed by the yeomanry in the country, and by the merchants 
and tradesmen in the towns. Both parties soon distinguished 
their adversaries by particular appellations. The royalists were 
denominated Cavaliers ; and they on their part gave to their 
enemies the name of Roundheads, because they cropped their 
hair short. * The command of the royal army was intrusted to the 
earl of Lindsey, of the parliamentary forces to the earl of Essex. 
Charles, having left Nottingham, proceeded to Shrewsbury, col- 
lecting reinforcements, and receiving voluntary contributions on 
his march. Halfway between Stafford and Wellington he halted 
the army, and placing himself in the centre, solemnly declared in 
the presence of Almighty God that he had no other design, that 
he felt no other wish, than to maintain the Protestant faith, to 
govern according to law, and to observe all the statutes enacted in 
parliament. Waller reduced Portsmouth, while Essex concen- 



1642 A. D.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 521 



trated his forces, amounting to fifteen thousand men, in the 
vicinity of Northampton. From Northampton he hastened to 
Worcester to oppose the advance of the royal army. 

At Nottingham the king could muster no more than six thou- 
sand men ; but he left Shrewsbury at the head of thrice that 
number. By a succession of skilful manoeuvres he The king march- 

..,,,,.., „ , , es toward the me- 

contrived to elude the vigilance of the enemy; and tropoiis. 
had advanced two days' march on the road to the metropolis before 
Essex became aware of his object. That general saw his error, 
and followed the king with expedition. His vanguard entered the 
village of Keynton on the same evening on which the royalists 
halted on Edgehill, only a few miles in advance. At midnight, 
Charles held a council of war, in which it was resolved to turn 
upon the pursuers, and to offer them battle. Early in the morn- 
ing the royal army was seen in position on the summit of a range 
of hills, which gave them a decided superiority in case of attack ; 
but Essex, whose artillery, with one-fourth of his men, was several 
miles in the rear, satisfied with having arrested the march of the 
enemy, quietly posted the different corps, as they arrived, on a 
rising ground in the Vale of the Red Horse, about half a mile in 
front of the village. About noon, the Cavaliers grew weary of 
inaction; their importunity at last prevailed; and, about two, the 
king discharged a cannon with his own hand as the signal of battle. 
The battle which followed was a very severe engagement. After 
some hours the firing ceased on both sides, and the adverse armies 
stood gazing at each other till the darkness induced Battle at Keyn . 
them to withdraw — the royalists to their first posi- ton - 
tion on the hills, and the parliamentarians to the village of Keyn- 
ton. Both armies claimed the honor, neither reaped the benefit, 
of victory. Essex, leaving the king to pursue his march, with- 
drew to Warwick, and thence to Coventry; Charles, having com- 
pelled the garrison of Banbury to surrender, turned aside to the 
city of Oxford. The two houses, though they assumed the laurels 
of victory, felt alarm at the proximity of the royalists, and ordered 
Essex to come to their protection. In the mean while the royal 
army, leaving Oxford, loitered — for what reason is unknown — in 
the vicinity of Reading, and permitted Essex to march without 
molestation by the more eastern road to the capital. Kingston, 
Acton, and Windsor were already garrisoned for the parliament; 
2 ir 44* 



522 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1642. 



and the only open passage to London lay through the town of 
Brentford. Charles had reached Colnbrook in this direction, when 
he was met by commissioners, who prevailed on him to suspend 
his march. The conference lasted two days ; on the second of 
which Essex threw a brigade, consisting of three of his best regi- 
ments, into Brentford. Charles felt indignant at this proceeding. 
It was in his opinion a breach of faith ; and two days later, after 
an obstinate resistance on the part of the enemy, he gained posses- 
sion of the town, having driven part of the garrison into the river, 
and taken fifteen pieces of cannon and five hundred men. The 
latter he ordered to be discharged, leaving it to their option either 
to enter among his followers or to promise on oath never more to 
bear arms against him. This action put an end to the projected 
treaty. The king's situation daily became more critical. His op- 
ponents had summoned forces from every quarter to London, and 
Essex found himself at the head of twenty-four thousand men. 
The two armies faced each other a whole day on Turnham Green ; 
but neither ventured to charge, and the king understanding tha^ 
the corps which defended the bridge at Kingston had been with- 
drawn, retreated first to Beading, and then to Oxford. 

The whole kingdom at this period exhibited a most melancholy 
spectacle. No man was suffered to remain neuter. The inter- 
The condition of course between distant parts of the country was 
the nation. interrupted, and the operations of commerce were 

suspended. In Oxford and its vicinity, in the four northern 
counties, in Wales, Shropshire, and Worcestershire, the royalists 
triumphed without opposition; in the metropolis, and the adjoin- 
ing counties on the southern and eastern coast, the superiority of 
the parliament was equally decisive. But the nation soon got 
tired of civil war. Petitions for peace, though they were un- 
graciously received, continued to load the tables of both houses ; 
and, as the king himself had proposed a cessation of hostilities, 
prudence taught the most sanguine advocates for war to accede 
to the wishes of the people. A negotiation was opened at Ox- 
ford, but no pacific result took place. 

During the treaty every effort was made to recruit the parlia- 
mentary army : at its expiration, Essex invested Beading, and 
took that town. After several messages from the parliament, he 
removed from Beading and fixed his head-quarters at Tame. One 



1642 A. D.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 523 

night, Prince Rupert, making a long circuit, sur- The Ueath of 
prised Chinnor in the rear of the army, and Hampden, 
killed or captured the greater part of two regiments that lay in 
the town. In his retreat to Oxford he was compelled to turn on 
his pursuers at Chalgrove ; they charged with more courage than 
prudence, and were repulsed with considerable loss. It was in 
this action that the celebrated Hampden received the wound of 
which he died. The reputation which he had earned by his re- 
sistance to the payment of the ship-money had deservedly placed 
him at the head of the popular leaders, while his insinuating 
manner, the modesty of his pretensions, and the belief of his in- 
tegrity, gave to his opinions an irresistible weight. Measures 
were soon taken to recruit, to its full complement, the army under 
Essex ; and an ordinance was passed to raise a separate force of 
ten thousand horse for the protection of the metropolis. Com- 
mittees were appointed to raise men and money in numerous 
other districts, and were invested with almost unlimited powers ; 
for the exercise of which in the service of the parliament, they 
were made responsible to no one but the parliament itself. 

Here, however, it is time to call the attention of the reader to 
the opening career of that extraordinary man, who, in the course 
of tbe next ten years, raised himself from the igno- 
ble pursuits of a grazier to the high dignity of lord 
protector of the three kingdoms. Oliver Cromwell was sprung 
from a younger branch of the Cromwells, a family of note and anti- 
quity in Huntingdonshire, and widely spread through that county 
and the whole of the Fen district. In the more early part of 
his life he fell into a state of profound and prolonged melancholy ; 
and it is plain from the few and disjointed documents which have 
come down to us, that his mental faculties were impaired. It was 
probably to withdraw him from scenes likely to cause the prolon- 
gation or recurrence of his malady, that he was advised to direct 
his attention to the pursuits of agriculture. He disposed by sale 
of his patrimonial property in Huntingdon, and took a large graz- 
ing farm in the neighborhood of the little town of St. Ives. This 
was an obscure, but tranquil and soothing occupation, which he 
did not quit till five years later, when he migrated to Ely, on the 
death of his maternal uncle, who had left to him by will the lu- 
crative situation of farmer of the tithes and of churchlands be- 



524 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



[A. D. 1642. 



longing to the cathedral of that city. Those stirring events fol- 
lowed which led to the first civil war ; Cromwell's enthusiasm 
kindled, the time was come " to put himself forth in the cause 
of the Lord/' and that cause he identified in his own mind with 
the cause of the country party in opposition to the sovereign 
and the church. The energy with which he entered into the 
controversies of the time attracted public notice, and the bur- 
gesses of Cambridge chose him for their representative in both the 
parliaments called by the king in 1640. It was not, however, 
before the year 1642, that he took his place among the leaders 
of his party. When the parliament selected officers to command 
in the new army under the earl of Essex, Cromwell received the 
commission of captain; within sis months afterward he was 
raised to the higher rank of colonel, with permission to levy for 
himself a regiment of one thousand horse out of the trained bands 
in the Eastern association. To the sentiment of honor which ani- 
mated the cavaliers in the field, he resolved to oppose the energy 
which is inspired by religious enthusiasm. At the head of his Iron- 
sides, he by his activity and daring added new laurels to those which 
he had previously won ; and from parliament, as a proof of confi- 
dence, he received the commission of lieutenant-general in 1643. 
In 1643, Charles invested Gloucester, the only place of note 
in the midland counties which admitted the authority of the par- 
The battle at li am ent, but was compelled to raise the siege. A 
Newbury. battle took place. soon afterward, at Newbury, in 

which the king's cavalry appears to have been more than a match 
for that of the enemy; but it could make no impression on the forest 
of pikes presented by the infantry, the greater part of which con- 
sisted of the trained bands from the capital. The battle raged 
till late in the evening, and both armies passed the night in the 
field, but in the morning the king allowed Essex to march through 
Newbury to London ; and having ordered Prince Rupert to an- 
noy the rear, retired with his infantry to Oxford. Ever since the 
beginning of the troubles, a thorough understanding had existed 
between the chief of the Scottish Covenanters and the principal 
of the English reformers. Their views were similar; their 
objects the same. The English parliament sent commission- 
ers to Scotland, whose arrival was celebrated as a day of na- 
tional triumph ; and the letters which they delivered were read 



1643 A. D.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 525 



with shouts of exultation and tears of joy. A proclamation was 
issued summoning all the lieges in Scotland between the ages of 
sixteen and sixty to appear in arms ; and the chief command of 
the forces was, at the request of the parliament, The parliamcrit 
accepted by Leslie, the veteran general of the Co- forms a league 

. , i m , ° •■,!,, with the Covenant- 

venanters in the last war. Inis formidable league, ers. 
this union cemented by interest and fanaticism, struck alarm into 
the breasts of the royalists. But Charles stood undismayed, and 
prepared to meet this additional evil. With this view he had la- 
bored to secure the obedience of the English army in Ireland 
against the adherents and emissaries of the parliament. The 
Catholics, by the establishment of a federative government, had 
consolidated their power, and given an uniform direction to their 
efforts. It was the care of their leaders to copy the example 
given by the Scots during the successful war of the Covenant. 
Like them they professed a sincere attachment to the person, a 
profound respect for the legitimate authority of the monarch; 
but like them they claimed the right of resisting oppression, and 
of employing force in defence of their religion and liberties. At 
their request, and in imitation of the general assembly of the 
Scottish kirk, a synod of Catholic prelates and divines was con- 
vened at Kilkenny ; a statement of the grievances which led the 
insurgents to take up arms was placed before them ; and they 
decided that the grounds were sufficient, and the war was lawful, 
provided it were not conducted through motives of personal in- 
terest or hatred, nor disgraced by acts of unnecessary cruelty. 
An oath and covenant was ordered to be taken, binding the sub- 
scribers to protect, at the risk of their lives and fortunes, the 
freedom of the Catholic worship, the person, heirs, and rights of 
the sovereign, and the lawful immunities and liberties of the 
kingdom of Ireland, against all usurpers and invaders whomso- 
ever. A day was then appointed for a national assembly, which, 
without the name, assumed the form and exercised the rights of 
a parliament. 

Experience had proved to Charles that the very name of par- 
liament possessed a powerful influence over the minds of the 
lower classes in favor of his adversaries. To dis- Charles sum- 
pel the charm, he resolved to oppose the loyal ment. 
members to those who remained at Westminster, and summoned 



528 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1644. 



by proclamation both bouses to meet him at Oxford on the twen- 
ty-second of January in the succeeding year. Forty-three peers 
and one hundred and eighteen commoners obeyed ; the usual 
forms of parliament were observed, and the king opened the 
session with a gracious speech, in which he deplored the calami- 
ties of the kingdom, desired them to bear witness to his pacific 
disposition, and promised them all the freedom and privileges be- 
longing to such assemblies. Negotiations were attempted, but 
without success. In various counties actions were fought, of 
which the success was various and the result unimportant. Every 
eye fixed itself on the two grand armies in the vicinity of Oxford 
and London. The parliament professed a resolution to stake the 
fortune of the cause on one great and decisive battle. The king's 
principal resource was in the courage and activity of Prince Rupert. 
He ordered that commander to collect all the force in his power, 
to hasten into Yorkshire and fight the enemy. He did so ; and 
Battle of Mars- on ^d J u ty> 1644, was fought the battle of Mars- 
ton Moor. ton Moor. In the parliamentary army, the English 
and the Scots, who had lately crossed the Tweed, were inter- 
mixed, to preclude all occasion of jealousy or dispute. Rupert, 
at the head of the royal cavalry on the right, charged with his 
usual impetuosity, and with the usual result. He bore down all 
before him, but continued the chase for some miles, and thus, by 
his absence from the field, suffered the victory to slip out of his 
hands. At the same time the royal infantry, under Goring, Lu- 
cas, and Porter, had charged their opponents with equal intrepi- 
dity and equal success. The line of the confederates was pierced 
in several points ; and their generals, Manchester, Leven, and 
Fairfax, convinced that the day was lost, fled in different direc- 
tions. By their flight the chief command devolved upon Crom- 
well, who improved the opportunity to win for himself the laurels 
of victory. With his Ironsides and the Scottish horse he had 
driven the royal cavalry, under the earl of Newcastle, from their 
position on the left. Ordering a few squadrons to observe and 
harass the fugitives, he wheeled round on the flank of the royal 
infantry, and found them in separate bodies, and in disorder, in- 
dulging in the confidence and license of victory. It was not 
long, indeed, before the royal cavalry, amounting to three thou- 
sand men, made their appearance returning from the pursuit. But 



1645 A. D.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 527 

the aspect of the field struck dismay into the heart of Rupert. 
His thoughtless impetuosity was now exchanged for an excess of 
caution; and after a few skirmishes he withdrew. Cromwell 
spent the night on the spot ; but it was to him a night of sus- 
pense and anxiety. His troopers were exhausted with the fatigue 
of the day ; the infantry was dispersed, and without orders ; and 
he expected every moment a nocturnal attack from Rupert, who 
had it in his power to collect a sufficient force from the several 
corps of royalists which had suffered little in the battle. 
But the morning brought him the pleasing intelligence that 
the prince had hastened by a circuitous route to York. He 
soon, however, returned to his former command in the western 
counties; and York, abandoned to its fate, opened its gates to 
the enemy, on condition that the citizens should not be 
molested. 

In the South of England, Charles obtained some advantages ; 
but the " parliamentary men" continued strong. They wasted, 
however, much time in personal disputes. The Catholics en- 
dured much persecution from the parliament, but it affected pro- 
perty more than life or limb. Episcopacy was at this time 
abolished by the parliamentarians. In January, 1645, Arch- 
bishop Laud, who had been a considerable time in prison, was 
attainted and executed. An attempt at negotiations soon after- 
ward took place between the king and parliament, but without 
success. War was resumed, and Montrose, acting for the king, 
gained some advantage in Scotland. 

England, however, was the real arena on which the conflict 
was to be decided, and in England the king soon found himself 
unable to cope with his enemies. He still possessed one-third of 
the kingdom. From Oxford he extended his sway almost with- 
out interruption to the extremity of Cornwall ; North and South 
Wales, with the exception of the castles of Pembroke and Mont- 
gomery, acknowledged his authority ; and the royal standard 
was still unfurled in several towns in the midland counties. But 
his army, under the nominal command of the prince of Wales, 
and the real command of Prince Rupert, was frittered away in a 
multitude of petty garrisons, and languished in a state of the 
most alarming insubordination. Their excesses provoked new 
associations in the counties of Wilts, Dorset, Devon, Somerset, 



528 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1645 



The association ancl Worcester, known by the denomination oi 
of Clubmen. Clubmen, whose primary object was the protection 

of private property, and the infliction of summary vengeance on 
the depredators belonging to either army. But, though they 
professed to observe the strictest neutrality between the contend- 
ing parties, their meetings excited a well-founded jealousy on the 
part of the parliamentary leaders ; who, the moment it could be 
done without danger, pronounced such associations illegal, and 
ordered them to be suppressed by military force. 

Charles took the field again, in May, 1645. He marched from 
Oxford at the head of ten thousand men, of whom more than one- 
half were cavalry ; the siege of Chester was raised 
at the sole report of his approach; and Leicester, 
an important post in possession of the parliament, was taken by 
storm on the first assault. Fairfax had appeared with his army 
before Oxford, where he expected to be admitted by a party 
within the walls ; but the intrigue failed, and he received orders 
to proceed in search of the king. On the evening of the seventh 
day his van overtook the rear of the royalists between Daventry 
and Harborough. Fairfax, the parliamentary general, and his 
officers, hailed with joy the prospect of a battle. Charles, on the 
contrary, had sufficient reason to decline an engagement. His 
numbers had been diminished by the necessity of leaving a strong 
garrison in Leicester, and several reinforcements were still on 
their march to join the royal standard. But in the presence of 
the Roundheads, the Cavaliers never listened to the suggestions 
of prudence. Early in the morning, the royal army formed in 
line about a mile south of Harborough. Till eight, they awaited 
with patience the expected charge of the enemy ; but Fairfax re- 
fused to move from his strong position near Naseby, and the 
king, yielding to the importunity of his officers, gave the word to 
advance. Prince Rupert commanded on the right. The enemy 
fled before him ; six pieces of cannon were taken, and Ireton, the 
general of the parliamentary horse, was wounded, and for some 
time a prisoner in the hands of the victors. But the lessons of 
experience had been thrown away upon Puipert. He urged the 
pursuit with his characteristic impetuosity, and, as at Marston 
Moor, by wandering from the field, suffered the victory to be won 
by the masterly conduct of Oliver Cromwell. In this battle, 



1646 A. D.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 529 

fought near the village of Naseby, the king lost more than three 
thousand men, nine thousand stand of arms, his park of artillery, 
the baggage of the army, and with it his own cabinet, containing 
private papers of the first importance. Out of these the parlia- 
ment made a collection, which was published, with remarks to 
prove to the nation the falsehoods of Charles, and the justice of 
the war. 

After the battle of Naseby, the campaign presented little more 
than the last and feeble struggles of an expiring party. Charles 
himself bore his misfortunes with an air of mag- The strug gi es of 
nanimity, which was characterized as obstinacy by an ^p^s P art >'- 
the desponding minds of his followers. From Leicester he re- 
treated to Hereford ; from Hereford to Ragland Castle, the seat 
of the loyal marquis of Worcester ; and thence to Cardiff, that he 
might more readily communicate with Prince Rupert at Bristol. 
Each day brought him a repetition of the most melancholy intel- 
ligence. From Cardiff he hastily crossed the kingdom to Newark. 
Learning that the Scottish cavalry were in pursuit, he left Newark, 
burst into the associated counties, ravaged the lands of his ene- 
mies, took the town of Huntingdon, and at last reached in safety 
his court at Oxford. His generals in Scotland gained some ad- 
vantages at this time, and the Scottish cavalry, which, in accord- 
ance with treaty, had already advanced to Nottingham, marched 
back to the Tweed to protect their own country. The king on 
the third day left Oxford with five thousand men, to drive the 
infantry from the siege of Hereford. They did not wait his 
arrival, and he entered the city amid the joyful acclamations of 
the inhabitants. But Charles was not long suffered to enjoy his 
triumph. Full of confidence, he had marched from Hereford to 
the relief of Bristol ; but at Ragland Castle learned that it was 
already in possession of the enemy. While the king mourned 
over the loss of Bristol, he received disastrous intelligence from 
Scotland. His troops met with severe reverses, and the prisoners 
were put to death in cold blood ; not the men only, but also every 
woman and child found near them. Nor was this sacrifice suffi- 
cient. Forty females, who had made their escape, inhumanity of 
and had been secured by the country people, were the Tlctors - 
a few days later delivered up to the victors, who, in obedience to 
the decision of the kirk, put them to death by throwing them 

45 



530 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1646. 



from the bridge near Linlithgow into the river Avon. After- 
ward, the Scottish parliament approved of their barbarities, on 
the pretence that the victims were "papists from Ireland." In 
the Highlands, Montrose raised the royal standard, and, with a 
small force and diminished reputation, continued to bid defiance 
to his enemies. At length, in obedience to repeated messages 
from the king, he dismissed his followers, and reluctantly with- 
drew to the continent. 

Oxford during the war had been rendered one of the strongest 
fortresses in the kingdom. AVith a garrison of five thousand 
men, and a plentiful supply of stores and provisions, Charles 
might have protracted his fate for several months; yet, the re- 
sult of a siege must have been his captivity. He possessed no 
army; he had no prospect of assistance from without; and 
within, famine would in the end compel him to surrender. The 
march of Fairfax with the advanced guard of his army toward 
Andover, admonished him that it was time to quit the city of 
Oxford. He left Oxford at midnight, disguised as a servant, fol- 
lowing his supposed master Ashburnham, who rode before in 
company with Hudson, a clergyman, well acquainted with the 
country. They passed through Henley and Brentford to Har- 
row; but the time which was spent on the road proved either 
that Charles had hitherto formed no plan in his own mind, or 
that he lingered with the hope of some communication from his 
partisans in the metropolis. At last he turned in the direction 
of St. Alban's; and, avoiding that town, hastened through by- 
ways to Harborough. Crossing by Stamford, he rested at Down- 
ham, and spent two or three days in inquiries for a ship which 
might convey him to Newcastle or Scotland. Not having suc- 
cinics finally ceeded, he surrendered at Kelham to the Scottish 

surrenders to the „ „ m . , 

Scottish army. army, on a promise or satcty. I he moment the 
place of the king's retreat was ascertained, both Presbyterians 
and Independents united in condemning the perfidy of their 
northern allies. Menaces of immediate hostilities were heard. 
Poyntz received orders to watch the motions of the Scots with five 
thousand horse ; and it was resolved that Fairfax should follow 
with the remainder of the army. But the Scottish leaders, 
anxious to avoid a rupture, and yet unwilling to surrender the 
royal prize, broke up their camp before Newark, and retired with 



1647 A. D.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 531 



precipitation to Newcastle. A committee assembled to balance 
tbe accounts between the nations ; many charges on both sides 
were disputed and disallowed ; and at last the Scots agreed to 
accept four hundred thousand pounds in lieu of all demands, of 
which one-half should be paid before they left England, the other 
after their arrival in Scotland. The first payment of one hundred 
thousand pounds was made at Northallerton : the Scots, according 
to agreement, evacuated Newcastle ; and the parliamentary com- 
missioners from London, without any other ceremony, took charge 
of the royal person. Four days later, the Scots received the 
second sum of one hundred thousand pounds; their army re- 
passed the border-line between the two kingdoms ; and the cap- 
tive monarch, under a strong guard, but with every demonstra- 
tion of respect, was conducted to prison at Holmby. 

The king during his captivity at Holmby divided his time be- 
tween his studies and amusements. Three months passed away 
without any official communication from the two houses. The 
king's patience was exhausted; and he addressed them by a let- 
ter, in which he said that on full consideration there were many 
things he would cheerfully concede. By the lords the royal 
letter was favorably received, and they resolved by a majority of 
thirteen to nine that the king should be removed from Holmby 
to Oatlands; but the commons neglected to notice the subject. 

To disband the army was now become the main object of the 
Presbyterian leaders ; but they disguised their real motives under 
the pretence of the national benefit. The royalists The Presbyterian 
were humbled in the dust; the Scots had de- disband the army, 
parted; and they said that it was time to relieve the country 
from the charge of supporting a multitude of men in arms with- 
out any ostensible purpose. The Independents resolved to op- 
pose their adversaries with their own weapons, and to intimidate 
those whom they were unable to convince. Suddenly, at their 
secret instigation, the army, rising from its cantonments in the 
neighborhood of Nottingham, approached the metropolis, and 
selected quarters in the county of Essex. The person of the 
king was soon afterward taken possession of by the ariny. This 
design of seizing the person of the king was attributed to the 
contrivance of Cromwell. The day after the abduction of the 
king from Holmby, the army rendezvoused at Newmarket, and 



532 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1647. 



entered into a solemn engagement, stating that, whereas several 
officers had been called in question for advocating the cause of 
the military, they had chosen certain men out of each company, 
who then chose two or more out of themselves, to act in the name 
and behalf of the whole soldiery of their respective regiments; 
and that they did now unanimously declare and promise that the 
army should not disband till their grievances had been redressed. 
The chiefs, however, who now ruled at Westminster, were not 
the men to surrender without a struggle. They submitted, in- 
deed, to pass a few ordinances calculated to give satisfaction, but 
these were combined with others which displayed a fixed determi- 
nation not to succumb to the dictates of a mutinous soldiery. 
Every day the contest assumed a more threatening aspect. After 
a short time the army took possession of London. 

Charles was, in August, 1647, transferred to the palace of 
Hampton Court. There he was suffered to enjoy the company 
of his children, whenever he pleased to command their attend- 
ance, and the pleasure of hunting, on his promise not to attempt 
an escape ; all persons whom he was content to see, found ready 
admission to his presence ; and, what he prized above all other 
concessions, he was furnished with the opportunity of correspond- 
ing freely and safely with the queen at Paris. At the same time 
the two houses, at the requisition of the Scottish commissioners, 
submitted propositions once more to the royal consideration ; but 
the negotiations were soon discontinued. Charles surrendered 
Charles escapes his parole, and in November made his escape to 
wight. the Isle of Wight. The governor, named Ham- 

mond, received him in a friendly manner, and placed him in 
Carisbrook Castle. 

Charles having refused to assent to some bills proposed in par- 
liament, and feeling aware of the consequences of his refusal, 
resolved to anticipate the vengeance of the parliament by making 
his escape to a ship which had been sent by the queen, and had 
been waiting for him several days in Southampton Water ; but 
he was prevented by the vigilance of Hammond, who closed the 
gates on the departure of the commissioners, doubled the guards, 
confined the royal captive to his chamber, and dismissed the 
greater part of his attendants. An attempt to raise in his favor 
the inhabitants of the island was instantly suppressed, and the 



1647 A. D.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 533 



houses resolved that they would receive no additional message 
from the king; that they would send no address or application 
to him ; that if any other person did so without leave, he should 
he subject to the penalties of high-treason. 

In the mean while an extraordinary ferment seemed to agitate 
the whole mass of the population. With the exception of the 
army, every class of men was dissatisfied. Four- Di8COntentamong 
fifths of the nation began to wish for the re-estab- the p^p 16 - 
lishment of the throne. The king appealed to the people through 
the agency of the press. The impression made by him called for 
an answer, and a long and labored vindication of the proceedings 
of the house of commons was published, to which several answers, 
eloquently and convincingly written, were circulated in many 
parts of the country. But, while the royal cause made rapid 
progress among the people, in the army itself the principles of 
the " Levellers" (a fanatic sect) had been embraced by the ma- 
jority of the privates, and had made several converts among the 
officers. They insisted that the king was answerable for the blood 
which had been shed; and that it was the duty of the repre- 
sentatives of the nation to call him to justice for the crime, and, 
in order to prevent the recurrence of similar mischiefs, to provide 
for the liberties of all, by founding an ecpial commonwealth on 
the general consent. Cromwell invited the patrons of this doc- 
trine to meet at his house the grandees (so they were called) of 
the parliament and army; but they took care not to commit 
themselves by too explicit an avowal before they could see their 
way plainly before them. Risings took place in favor of Charles 
in several places, and an army from Scotland under the duke of 
Hamilton crossed the borders. This army was defeated at Pres- 
ton by Cromwell. The king's adherents in the northern counties 
had already surprised Berwick and Carlisle; and, to facilitate his 
entry, had for two months awaited with impatience his arrival. 
Hamilton, though possessed of personal courage, was diffident of 
his own powers, and resigned himself to the guidance of men who 
sacrificed the interests of the service to their private jealousies 
and feuds. 

At this time the prince of Wales had been more than six 
weeks in the Downs. Having heard that the fleet had revolted, 
he repaired to the Hague, and taking upon himself the command, 

45* 



534 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1647. 



, hastened with nineteen sail to the English coast. 

The prince of ° 

Wales sails to the Had he appeared before the Isle of Wight, there 
can be little doubt that Charles would have recovered 
his liberty; but the council, with the prince, decided that it was more 
for the royal interest to sail to the mouth of the river, where they 
long continued to solicit by letters the wavering disposition of 
the parliament and the city. While Hamilton advanced, there 
seemed a prospect of success ; the destruction of his army extin- 
guished their hopes. The king, by a private message, suggested 
that before their departure from the coast, they should free him 
from his captivity. But the mariners proved that they were the 
masters. They demanded to fight the hostile fleet under the earl 
of Warwick, who studiously avoided an engagement, that he 
might be joined by a squadron from Portsmouth. During two 
days the royalists offered him battle ; by different manoeuvres he 
eluded their attempts ; and on the third day, the want of provi- 
sions compelled the prince to steer for the coast of Holland, with- 
out paying attention to the request of his royal father. 

It is now time to revert to the subject of the proposed treaty 
with the king. Fifteen commissioners, five lords and ten com- 
moners, were appointed to conduct the negotiation. At length 
they arrived; Charles repaired from his prison in Carisbrook 
Castle to the neighboring town of Newport ; but no practical re- 
sult took place. It had long, however, been the conviction of 
the officers of the army that the life of the king was incompatible 
Preparations for with their safety. If he were restored, they would 
king. become the objects of his royal vengeance ; if he 

were detained in prison, the public tranquillity would be dis- 
turbed by a succession of plots in his favor. In private assassi- 
nation there was something base and cowardly, from which the 
majority revolted; but to bring him to public justice was to act 
openly and boldly ; it was to proclaim their confidence in the 
goodness of their cause ; to give to the world a splendid proof of 
the sovereignty of the people and of the responsibility of kings. 
When the motion was made in the commons, a few ventured to 
oppose it; not so much with the hope of saving the life of 
Charles, as for the purpose of transferring the odium of his death 
on its real authors. But their opponents were clamorous, obsti- 
nate, and menacing. The opposition was silenced ; and a com- 



1648 A. D.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 535 



mittee of thirty-eight members was appointed to receive informa- 
tion, and to devise the most eligible manner of proceeding. At 
the recommendation of this committee, the house passed a vote 
declaratory of the law, that it was high-treason in the king of 
England, for the time being, to levy war against the parliament 
and kingdom of England; and this was followed up with an 
ordinance erecting a high court of justice to try the question of 
fact, whether Charles Stuart, king of England, had or had not 
been guilty of the treason described in the preceding vote. The 
lords would not concur in the proceedings, and the act for the 
trial of the king was passed by the authority of the commons 
only. 

Cromwell continued to act his accustomed part. Whenever 
he rose in the house it was to recommend moderation, to express 
the doubts which agitated his mind, to protest that if he assented 
to harsh and ungracious measures, he did it with reluctance, and 
solely in obedience to the will of the Almighty. 

On the 18th December, 1648, the king in anticipation of his 
subsequent trial, was removed to the palace of St. James. The 
princes of Europe looked with cold indifference on indifference of 
his fate. The king of Spain, during the whole Europe, 
contest, had maintained a friendly correspondence with the par- 
liament. Frederic III., king of Denmark, though he was his 
cousin-german, made no effort to save his life; and Henrietta 
could obtain for him no interposition from France, where the in- 
fant king had been driven from his capital by civil dissension, 
and she herself depended for subsistence on the charity of the 
Cardinal de Retz, the leader of the Fronde. The Scottish par- 
liament, indeed, made a feeble effort in his favor. The commis- 
sioners subscribed a protest against the proceedings of the com- 
mons, by whom it was never answered; and argued the case with 
Cromwell, who referred them to the covenant, and maintained 
that if it was their duty to punish the malignants in general, it 
was still more so to punish him who was the chief of the malig- 
nants. 

As the day of trial approached, Charles resigned the hopes 
which he had hitherto indulged ; and his removal to Whitehall 
admonished him to prepare for that important The commission- 
scene on which he was soon to appear. Without ^eet° ry e "^ 



536 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1649. 

information or advice, he could only resolve to maintain the port 
and dignity of a king, to refuse the authority of his judges, and 
to commit no act unworthy of his exalted rank and that of his 
ancestors. On the 20th of January, 1649, the commissioners 
appointed by the act assembled in the painted chamber, and pro- 
ceeded in state to the upper end of Westminster Hall. A chair 
of crimson velvet had been placed for the lord president, John 
Bradshaw, serjeant-at-law; the others, to the number of sixty-sis, 
ranged themselves on either side, on benches covered with scarlet; 
at the feet of the president sat two clerks at a table, on which 
lay the sword and the mace; and directly opposite stood a chair 
intended for the king. After the preliminary formalities of read- 
ing the commission, and calling over the members, Bradshaw 
ordered the prisoner to be introduced. 

Charles was received at the door by the serjeant-at-arms, and 

conducted by him within the bar. His step was firm, his coun- 

The reply of tenance erect and unmoved. He did not uncover; 

Charles to the , „ - , . . . . . ' 

charges. but first seated himself, then rose, and surveyed 

the court with an air of superiority, which abashed and irritated 
his enemies. While the clerk read the charge, he appeared to 
listen with indifference ; but a smile of contempt was seen to 
quiver on his lips at the passage which described him as a "tyrant, 
traitor, murderer, and public and implacable enemy to the com- 
monwealth of England." At the conclusion, Bradshaw called 
on him to answer ; but he demanded by what lawful authority 
he had been brought thither. He was king of England ; he ac- 
knowledged no superior upon earth; and the crown which he had 
received from his ancestors, he would transmit, unimpaired by any 
act of his, to his posterity. He would never acknowledge an 
usurped authority. It was a duty imposed upon him by the 
Almighty to disown every lawless power that invaded either the 
rights of the crown or the liberties of the subject. 

Bradshaw, after the trial had proceeded some days, animad- 
verted on the principal events of Charles's reign. The meek 
spirit of the prisoner was roused ; he made an attempt to speak, 
He is sentenced but was immediately silenced with the remark, 
to be beheaded. that the time for his defence was passed. The 
charge was again read, and was followed by the judgment, " that 
the court, being satisfied in conscience that he, the said Charles 



1649 A. D.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 537 



Stuart, was guilty of the crimes of which he had been accused, 
did adjudge him as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy 
to the good people of the nation, to be put to death by severing 
his head from his body." The king heard it in silence, some- 
times smiling with contempt, sometimes raising his eyes to heaven, 
as if he appealed from the malice of men to the justice of the 
Almighty. At the conclusion, the commissioners rose in a body 
to testify their assent, and Charles made a last and more earnest 
effort to speak ; but Bradshaw ordered him to be removed, and 
the guards hurried him out of the hall. 

During this trial a strong military force had been kept under 
arms to suppress any demonstration of popular feeling in favor 
of the king. On the first day, when the name of Manifestations 
Fairfax as one of the commissioners was called, a in his favor - 
female voice cried from the gallery, " He has more wit than to 
be here." On another occasion, when Bradshaw attributed the 
charge against the king to the consistent voice of the people of 
England, the same female voice exclaimed, "No, not one-tenth 
of the people." A faint murmur of approbation followed, but 
was instantly suppressed by the military. The speaker was re- 
cognised to be Lady Fairfax, the wife of the commander-in-chief; 
and these affronts, probably on that account, were suffered to pass 
unnoticed. 

When Coke, the solicitor-general, opened the pleadings, the 
king gently tapped him on the shoulder with his cane, crying, 
" Hold, hold." At the same moment the silver head of the cane 
fell off, and rolled on the floor. It was an accident which might 
have happened at any time; but in this superstitious age it could 
not fail to be taken for an omen. Both his friends and enemies 
interpreted it as a presage of his approaching decapitation. 

On one day, as the king entered the court, he heard behind 
him the cry of " Justice, justice ;" on another, as he passed be- 
tween two lines of soldiers, the word " execution" was repeatedly 
sounded in his ears. He bore these affronts with patience, and 
on his return said to Herbert, " I am well assured that the 
soldiers bear me no malice. The cry was suggested by their of- 
ficers, for whom they would do the like if there were occasion." 
On his return from the hall, men and women crowded behind the 
guards, and called aloud, " God preserve your majesty." But 



538 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1649. 



one of the soldiers venturing to say, " God bless you, sir," re- 
ceived a stroke on the head from an officer with his cane. 
" Truly," observed the king, " I think the punishment exceeded 
the offence." 

By his conduct during these proceedings, Charles had exalted 
his character even in the estimation of his enemies : he had now 

The kiu-* pre- ^° P re P are himself for a still more trying scene ; 
pares for death. to nerve his mind against the terrors of a public 
and ignominious death. But he was no longer the man he had 
been before the civil war. Affliction had chastened his mind ; 
he had learned from experience to submit to the visitations of 
Providence ; and he sought and found strength and relief in the 
consolations of religion. The next day, the Sunday, was spent 
by him at St. James's, and by the commissioners at Whitehall. 
They observed a fast, preached on the judgments of God, and 
prayed for a blessing on the commonwealth. He devoted his 
time to devotional exercises in the company of Herbert and of 
Dr. Juxon, bishop of London, who, at the request of Hugh 
Peters, (and it should be recorded to the honor of that fanatical 
preacher,) had been permitted to attend the monarch. His 
nephew, the prince elector, the duke of Bichmond, the marquess 
of Hertford, and several other noblemen, came to the door of his 
bed-chamber to pay their last respects to their sovereign ; but 
they were told in his name that he thanked them for their attach- 
ment, and desired their prayers; that the shortness of his time 
admonished him to think of another world; and that the only 
moments which he could spare must be given to his children. 
These were two, the princess Elizabeth and the duke of Glouces- 
ter; the former wept for her father's fate; the latter, too young 
to understand the cause, joined his tears through sympathy. 
Charles placed them on his knees, gave them such advice as was 
adapted to their years, and seemed to derive pleasure from the 
pertinency of their answers. In conclusion, he divided a few 
jewels between them, kissed them, gave them his blessing, and 
hastily retired to his devotions. 

On the last night of his life he slept soundly about four hours, 
and early in the morning awakened Herbert, who lay on a pallet 
by his bedside. " This," he said, " is my second marriage-day. 
I would be as trim as may be; for before night I hope to be 



1649 A. D.] CHARLES THE FIRST. 539 



espoused to my blessed Jesus." He then pointed out the clothes 
which he meant to wear, and ordered two shirts, on account of 
the severity of the weather: "For," he observed, "were I to 
shake through cold, my enemies would attribute it to fear. I 
would have no such imputation. I fear not death. Death is not 
terrible to me. I bless my God I am prepared." 

The king spent an hour in privacy with the bishop; Herbert 
was afterward admitted; and about ten o'clock, Colonel Hacker 
announced that it was time to proceed to White- He is conducted 
hall. He obeyed, was conducted on foot between to MhitehaU - 
two detachments of military across the park, and received per- 
mission to repose himself in his former bedchamber. About 
two o'clock, the king proceeded through the long gallery, lined 
on each side with soldiers, who, far from insulting the fallen 
monarch, appeared by their sorrowful looks to sympathize with 
his fate. At the end, an aperture had been made in the wall, 
through which he stepped at once upon the scaffold. It was 
hung with black; at the further end were seen the two execu- 
tioners, the block, and the axe; below appeared, in arms, several 
regiments of horse' and foot; and beyond, as far as the eye was 
permitted to reach, waved a dense and countless crowd of spec- 
tators. The king stood collected and undismayed amid the ap- 
paratus of death. There was in his countenance that cheerful 
intrepidity, in his demeanor that dignified calmness, which had 
characterized, in the hall of Fotheringay, his royal grandmother, 
Mary Stuart. It was his wish to address the people; but they 
were kept beyond the reach of his voice by the swords of the 
military; and, therefore, confining his discourse to the few per- 
sons standing with him on the scaffold, he took, he said, that op- 
portunity of denying, in the presence of his God, the crimes of 
which he had been accused. 

Being ready, he bent his neck on the block, and after a short 
pause, stretched out his hands as a signal. At that instant the 
axe descended; the head rolled from the body; His execution, 
and a deep groan burst from the multitude of the KeflectionB - 
spectators. But they had no leisure to testify their feelings; two 
troops of horse dispersed them in different directions. 

Such was the end of the unfortunate Charles Stuart: an awful 
lesson to the possessors of royalty, to watch the growth of public 



540 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1649 

opinion, and to moderate their pretensions in conformity with the 
reasonable desires of their subjects. Had he lived at a more 
early period, when the sense of wrong was quickly subdued by 
the habit of submission, his reign would probably have been 
marked with fewer violations of the national liberties. It was 
resistance that made him a tyrant. The spirit of the people re- 
fused to yield to the encroachments of authority; and one act of 
oppression placed him under the necessity of committing another, 
till he had revived and enforced all those odious prerogatives, 
which, though usually claimed, were but sparingly exercised by 
his predecessors. For some years his efforts seemed successful ; 
but the Scottish insurrection revealed the delusion; he had parted 
with the real authority of a king, when he forfeited the confidence 
and affection of his subjects. 

But while we blame the illegal measures of Charles, we ought 
not to screen from censure the subsequent conduct of his princi- 

His opponents pal opponents. From the moment that war seemed 
notto be screened. i nev i tawe , they acted as if they thought them- 
selves absolved from all obligations of honor and honesty. They 
never ceased to inflame the passions of the people by misrepre- 
sentation and calumny; they exercised a power far more arbitrary 
and formidable than had ever been claimed by the king; they 
punished summarily, on mere suspicion, and without attention to 
the forms of law; and, by their committees, they established in 
every county a knot of petty tyrants, who disposed at will of the 
liberty and property of the inhabitants. Such anomalies may, 
perhaps, be inseparable from the jealousies, the resentments, and 
the heart-burnings which are engendered in civil commotions; but 
certain it is that right and justice had seldom been more wan- 
tonly outraged than they were by those who professed to have 
drawn the sword in the defence of right and justice. Neither 
should the death of Charles be attributed to the vengeance of the 
people. They, for the most part, declared themselves satisfied 
with their victory; they sought not the blood of the captive 
monarch; they were even willing to replace him on the throne, 
under those limitations which they deemed necessary for the 
preservation of their rights. The men who hurried him to the 
scaffold were a small faction of bold and ambitious spirits, who 
had the address to guide the passions and fanaticism of their fol- 



1649 A. D.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 541 



lowers, and were enabled through them to control the real senti- 
ments of the nation. But so it always happens in revolutions : 
the most violent put themselves forward; their vigilance and ac- 
tivity seem to multiply their number; and the daring of the few 
wins the ascendency over the indolence or the pusillanimity of the 
many. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



Council of State appointed — Charles II. proclaimed in Scotland — Success of 
Cromwell in Ireland — Charles lands in Scotland — Battle at Dunbar — Battle 
of Worcester — The Escape, and Adventures of Charles — Reduction of Ireland 
and Scotland — Cromwell dissolves the Long Parliament, and expels its mem- 
bers — Calls a new Parliament — Makes himself Protector — Aspires to the 
title of King— His Death, and Character — His son Richard proclaimed Pro- 
tector — He resigns the office — From A. D. 1649 to 1660. 



The moment the head of the royal victim fell on the scaffold 
at Whitehall, a proclamation was read in Cheapside, declaring it 
treason to give to any person the title of king without the autho- 
rity of parliament; and at the" same time was published the vote 
of the 4th of January, that the supreme authority in the nation 
resided in the representatives of the people. The peers, though 
aware of their approaching fate, continued to sit; but, after a 
pause of a few days, the commons resolved, first, that the house 
of lords, and, next, that the office of king, ought to be abolished. 
The next measure was the appointment, by the a council of 
commons, of a council of state, to consist of forty- «tate appointed, 
one members, with powers limited in duration to twelve months. 
But, at the very outset, a schism appeared among the new 
councillors. The oath required of them by the parliament 
contained an approval of the king's trial, of a vote against the 



5^2 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1649 



Scots and their English associates, and of the abolition of mo- 
narchy and of the house of lords. By Cromwell and eighteen 
others it was taken cheerfully, and without comment; by the re- 
maining twenty-two, with Fairfax at their head, it was firmly, but 
respectfully, refused. Cromwell and his friends had the wisdom 
to yield; the retrospective clauses were expunged, and in their 
place was substituted a general promise of adhesion to the par- 
liament. There was much in the internal state of the country to 
awaken apprehension in the breasts of Cromwell and his friends. 
Throughout the kingdom the lower classes loudly complained of 
the burden of taxation : in several parts they suffered under the 
pressure of penury and famine. But that which chiefly created 
alarm was the progress made among the military by the " Level- 
lers," men of consistent principles and uncompromising conduct, 
under the guidance of Colonel John Lilburne, an officer distin- 
guished by his talents and his elocpience. He wrote a book 
against Cromwell and his partisans: by the parliament it was 
voted a seditious and traitorous libel, and the author was com- 
mitted, by order of the council, to close custody in the Tower. 

It had been determined to send to Ireland a division of twelve 
thousand men ; and the regiments to be employed were selected 
by ballot, apparently in the fairest manner. The men, however, 
avowed a resolution not to march. It was not, they said, that 
they refused the service; but they believed the expedition to be 
a mere artifice to send the discontented out of the kingdom. 

When the Scottish parliament received the news of the king's 
execution, the chancellor, attended by the members, proceeded 

Scotland pro to the cross in Edinburgh, and proclaimed Charles, 

claims Charles, son , „ , , , ■.. n • poj.ii 

of the late king, the son of the deceased prince, king of Scotland, 
England, France, and Ireland. But to this proclamation was 
appended a provision, that the young prince, before he could 
enter on the exercise of the royal authority, should satisfy the 
the parliament of his adhesion both to the national covenant of 
Scotland, and to the solemn league and covenant between the 
two kingdoms. The earl of Cassilis, with four new commission- 
ers, was appointed to proceed to Holland, where Charles, under 
the protection of his brother-in-law, the prince of Orange, had 
resided since the death of his father. His court consisted of a 
few individuals whom that monarch had placed around him, and 



1650 A. D.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 543 



whom he now swore of his privy council. He was perplexed hy 
the conflicting opinions of several advisers. 

The royal interest was predominant in Ireland. The fleet 
under Prince Rupert rode triumphant off the coast; the parlia- 
mentary commanders, Jones in Dublin, Monk in Belfast, and 
Coote in Londonderry, were almost confined within the limits of 
their respective garrisons; and Inchiquin in Minister, the Scot- 
tish regiments in Ulster, and the great body of the Catholics 
adhering to the supreme council, had proclaimed the king, and 
acknowledged the authority of his lieutenant. To the leaders in 
London, the danger of losing Ireland became a cromweii sent 
source of the most perplexing solicitude, and the to reduce Mand. 
office of lord lieutenant was conferred on Cromwell. Out of the 
standing army of forty-five thousand men, with whose aid Eng- 
land was now governed, he demanded a force of twelve thousand 
veterans, with a plentiful supply of provisions and military stores, 
and the round sum of one hundred thousand pounds in ready 
money. On the day of his departure, his friends assembled at 
Whitehall, and three ministers solemnly invoked the blessing 
of God on the arms of his " saints." He sailed from Milford 
with a single division; his son-in-law, Ireton, followed with the 
remainder of the army, and a fortnight was allowed to the sol- 
diers to refresh themselves after their voyage. The campaign 
was opened with the siege of Drogheda. Orniond had thrown 
into the town a garrison of two thousand five hundred chosen 
men, under the command of Sir Arthur Aston, an officer who 
had earned a brilliant reputation by his services to the royal 
cause in England during the civil war. On the eighth day a 
sufficient breach had been effected in the wall : the assailants on 
the first attempt were driven back with immense loss. They re- 
turned a second, perhaps a third time to the assault, and their 
perseverance was at last crowned with success. Cromwell gave 
orders that no one belonging to the garrison should be spared; 
and Aston, his officers and men, having been previously dis- 
armed, were put to the sword. From thence the conquerors, 
stimulated by revenge and fanaticism, directed their fury against 
the townsmen; and, on the next morning, one thousand unresist- 
ing victims were immolated together within the The massacre at 

11 f i i i i-i Tin! Drogheda and at 

walls oi the great church, whither they had ilea Wexford. 



544 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1650. 



for protection. From Drogheda the conqueror led his men, 
flushed with slaughter, to the siege of Wexford. The mayor 
and governor offered to capitulate; but while their commission- 
ers were treating with Cromwell, an officer perfidiously opened 
the castle to the enemy; the adjacent wall was immediately 
scaled; and, after a stubborn but unavailing resistance in the 
market-place, Wexford was abandoned to the mercy of the assail- 
ants. The tragedy so recently acted at Drogheda was renewed. 
No distinction was made between the defenceless inhabitant and 
the armed soldier; nor could the shrieks and prayers of three 
hundred females, who had gathered around the great cross, pre- 
serve them from the swords of these ruthless barbarians. 

The garrisons of Cork, Youghal, Bandon, and Kinsale de- 
clared for the parliament, and Cromwell seized the opportunity 
The sanguinary to close tne campaign, and place his followers in 
proceedings of w i n ter quarters. But inactivity suited not his 

Cromwell in Ire- l . * 

land. policy or inclination. After seven weeks ot re- 

pose he again summoned them into the field; and at the head 
of twenty thousand men, well appointed and disciplined, confi- 
dently anticipated the entire conquest of Ireland. The royalists 
were destitute of money, arms, and ammunition. Cromwell met 
with little resistance; wherever he came, he held out the pro- 
mise of life and liberty of conscience; but the rejection of the 
offer, though it were afterward accepted, was punished with the 
blood of the officers; and if the place were taken by force, with 
indiscriminate slaughter. Proceeding on this plan, one clay 
granting quarter, another putting the leaders only to the sword, 
and on the next immolating the whole garrison — hundreds of 
human beings at a time— he quickly reduced most of the towns 
and castles in the three counties of Limerick, Tipperary, and 
Kilkenny. But this bloody policy at length recoiled upon its 
author. Men, with no alternative but victory or death, learned 
to fight with the energy of despair. At the siege of Kilkenny 
the assailants, though twice repulsed from the breach, were, by 
the timidity of some of the inhabitants, admitted within the 
walls; yet, so obstinate was the resistance of the garrison, that, 
to spare his own men, the general consented to grant them ho- 
norable terms. From Kilkenny he proceeded to the town of 
Clonmel, where Hugh, the son of the deceased O'Neil, com- 



A. D. 1650.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 545 



mantled with one thousand two hundred of the best troops of Ul- 
ster. The duration of the siege exhausted his patience; the 
breach was stormed a second time; and, after a conflict of four 
hours, the English were driven back with considerable loss. The 
garrison, however, had expended their ammunition; they took 
advantage of the confusion of the enemy to depart during the 
darkness of the night; and the townsmen the next morning, 
keeping the secret, obtained from Cromwell a favorable capitula- 
tion. This was his last exploit in Ireland. From Clonmell he 
was recalled to England to undertake a service of greater import- 
ance and difficulty, to which the reader must now direct his at- 
tention. 

The young king at St. Germains had given to Montrose a 
commission to raise the royal standard in Scotland. The fame 
of that nobleman secured to him a gracious recep- Montrose endea- 
tion from the northern sovereigns; he visited each g^t? in'favoVof 
court in succession ; and, in all, obtained permis- the royal cause - 
sion to levy men, and received aid either in money or in military 
stores. In autumn, 1649, he despatched the first expedition of 
twelve thousand men from Gottenburg, under the lord Kinnoul ; 
but the winds and waves fought against the royalists; several sail 
were lost among the rocks; and, when Kinnoul landed at Kirk- 
wall in the Orkneys, he could muster only eighty officers and one 
hundred common soldiers out of the whole number. But Mont- 
rose was not to be appalled by ordinary difficulties. Having re- 
ceived from the new king the order of the garter, he followed 
with five hundred men, mostly foreigners; added them to the 
wreck of the first expedition and to the new levies, and then 
found himself at the head of a force of more than one thousand 
men. On his banner was painted a representation of the late 
king decapitated, with this motto, " Judge and avenge my cause, 
Lord." Montrose was defeated, and sentenced to death. On 
the scaffold, he defended his conduct, praised the character of 
the present king, and appealed from the censures of the kirk to 
the justice of heaven. As a last disgrace, the executioner hung 
round his neck his late declaration, with the history of his 
former exploits. He smiled at the malice of his enemies, and 
said that they had given him a more brilliant decoration than 
the garter with which he had been honored by his sovereign. 

46* 



54G HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1650. 



Montrose, by his death, won more proselytes to the royal cause 
than he had ever made by his victories. He was in his thirty- 
eighth vear. 

Charles signed a treaty, binding himself to take the Scottish 

Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant; to disavow and 

Charles accedes declare null the peace with the Irish, and never 

to the League, and , . , ,, « . D ,, /-, ,-, -.. -,. 

lands in Scotland, to permit the tree exercise ot the Catholic reli- 
gion in Ireland, or any other part of his dominions; to acknow- 
ledge the authority of all parliaments held since the commence- 
ment of the late war; and to govern, in civil matters, by advice 
of the parliament — in religious, by that of the kirk. These pre- 
liminaries being settled, he embarked on board a small squadron 
furnished by the prince of Orange ; and, after a perilous naviga- 
tion of three weeks, during which he had to contend with the 
stormy weather, and to elude the pursuit of the parliamentary 
cruisers, he arrived in safety in the Frith of Cromartie, where he 
was received with the honors due to his dignity. 

It was the negotiation between the Scots and their nominal 
king that arrested Cromwell in the career of victory, and called 
him away from Ireland. He left the command in Ireland to Ire- 
ton, and, returning to England, appeared in parliament. He was 
received with acclamations; the palace of St. James was allotted 
for his residence, and a valuable grant of lands was voted as a 
reward for his eminent services. In a few days followed the ap- 
pointment of Fairfax to the office of commander-in-chief, and of 
Cromwell to that of lieutenant-general of the army designed to 

Fairfax resigns be employed in Scotland. Fairfax objected to the 
his commission. invasion of Scotland, and resigned his commis- 
sion ; in consequence of which, the chief command of all the 
forces raised, or to be raised, by order of parliament, was confer- 
red on Oliver Cromwell. Thus this adventurer obtained at the 
same time the praise of moderation (for he had urged Fairfax to 
continue in command) and the object of his ambition. Imme- 
diately he left the capital for Scotland; and Fairfax retired to his 
estate in Yorkshire, where he lived with the privacy of a country 
gentleman till he once more drew the sword, not in support of the 
commonwealth, but in favor of the king. 

Cromwell passed the Tweed at the head of sixteen thousand 
men, most of them veterans, all habituated to military discipline. 



1651 A. D.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 547 



He found the Scottish troops posted behind a deep intrenchment, 
running from Edinburgh to Leith, fortified with numerous batte- 
ries, and flanked by the cannon of the castle at one extremity, 
and of the harbor at the other. Cromwell employed all his art 
to provoke an engagement, which Leslie, the Scottish general, 
wished to avoid. The caution of Leslie triumphed over the skill 
and activity of Cromwell, who saw no alternative but victory or 
retreat : of the first he had no doubt, if he could come in contact 
with the enemy; the second was a perilous attempt, when the 
passes before him were preoccupied, and a more numerous force 
was hanging on his rear. At Musselburg, having sent the sick 
on board the fleet, he ordered the army to march the next morn- 
in°; to Haddington, and thence to Dunbar. At Cromwell defeats 

o / the Scots at Dun- 

Dunbar, Cromwell posted his men in the vicinity bar. 
of Broxmouth House; Leslie with the Scots moving along the 
heights of Lammermuir, occupied a position on the Doon Hill, 
about two miles to the south of the invaders ; and the advanced 
posts of the armies were separated only by a ravine of the depth 
and breadth of about thirty feet. Cromwell was not ignorant of 
the danger of his situation ; he had even thought of putting the 
infantry on board the fleet, and of attempting to escape with 
the cavalry by the only outlet, the high road to Berwick; but 
the next moment he condemned the thought. On the other side 
the Scotch council compelled their general to depart from his 
usual caution, and to make preparation for battle. The next 
morning the Scottish lancers, aided by their artillery, charged 
down the hill, drove the brigade of English cavalry from its po- 
sition, and broke through the infantry, which had advanced to 
the support of the horse. At that moment the sun made its 
appearance above the horizon; and Cromwell, turning to his 
own regiment of foot, exclaimed, " Let the Lord arise, and scat- 
ter his enemies." They instantly moved forward with their pikes 
levelled ; the horse rallied ; and the enemy's lancers hesitated, 
broke, and fled. At that moment the mist dispersed, and the 
first spectacle which struck the eyes of the Scots was the rout of 
their cavalry. A sudden panic instantly spread from the right to 
the left of their line; at the approach of the English they threw 
down their arms and ran. Cromwell's regiment halted to sing the 
117th Psalm; but the pursuit was continued for more than eight 



548 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1851. 



miles; the dead bodies of three thousand Scots strewed their 
native soil ; and ten thousand prisoners, with the artillery, am- 
munition, and baggage, became the reward of the conquerors. 
Cromwell now thought no more of his retreat. He marched 
back to the capital; the hope of resistance was abandoned; 
Edinburgh and Leith opened their gates, and the whole country 
to the Forth submitted to the will of the English general. 

To the young king, the defeat at Dunbar was a subject of real 
and ill-dissembled joy. Hitherto he had been a mere puppet in 

Charles is crown- the nands of Ar gy le and nis P art y ', now their power 
ed at Scone. was b ro ken, and it was not impossible for him to 

gain the ascendency. On the first day of the new year, he rode 
in procession to the church of Scone, where his ancestors had been 
accustomed to receive the Scottish crown: there, on his knees, with 
his arm upraised, he swore by the Eternal and Almighty God to 
observe the two covenants ; to establish the presbyterian govern- 
ment in Scotland and in his family ; and to give his assent to acts 
for establishing it in his other dominions. Argyle then placed 
the crown upon his head, and seated him on the throne, and both 
nobility, and people swore allegiance to him "according to the na- 
tional covenant, and the Solemn League and Covenant." In April, 
the king, with Leslie and Middleton as his lieutenants, took the 
command of the army, which had been raised by new levies to 
twenty thousand men ; and, having fortified the passages of the 
Forth, awaited, on the left bank, the motions of the enemy. 

In the mean while, Cromwell had obtained possession of the castle 
of Edinburgh through the perfidy or the timidity of the governor. 

Charles invades He gained such great advantages in a few months, 
that Charles resolved to abandon the Scottish con- 
test, and to transfer the war to England. So rapid was his ad- 
vance, that he traversed the lowlands of Scottland, and the northern 
counties in England, without meeting a single foe. The king 
pushed forward till he reached Worcester, where he was solemnly 
proclaimed by the mayor, amid the loud acclamations of the gen- 
tlemen of the county, who, under a suspicion of their loyalty, had 
been confined in that city by order of the council. 

At the first news of the royal march, the leaders at Westminster 
abandoned themselves to despair. They were relieved by the arrival 
of despatches from the general, and by the indecision of the royal- 



1651 A. D.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 549 



ists, who, unprepared for the event, had hitherto made no movement. 
The occurrences of each day added to the disap- The battle of 
pointment of Charles and the confidence of his defeat of Charles, 
enemies. He had summoned by proclamation all his male subjects 
between the age of sixteen and sixty to join his standard. A few 
of the neighboring gentlemen with their tenants, not two hundred 
in number, obeyed the call ; and it was found that the whole amount 
of his force did not exceed twelve (or according to Cromwell, six- 
teen) thousand men, of whom one-sixth part only was composed 
of Englishmen. But, while a few straggling royalists thus stole 
into his quarters, as if it were to display by their paucity the 
hopelessness of his cause, the daily arrival of hostile reinforcements 
swelled the army in the neighbourhood to more than thirty thou- 
sand men. At length Cromwell arrived, and was received with 
enthusiasm. The royalists had broken down an arch of the bridge 
over the Severn at Upton ; but a few soldiers passed on a beam in 
the night; the breach was repaired, and Lambert crossed with ten 
thousand men to the right bank. A succession of partial but 
obstinate actions alternately raised and depressed the hopes of the 
two parties ; the grand attempt was reserved by the lord general 
for his auspicious day, the 3d of September, on which, twelve 
months before, he had defeated the Scots at Dunbar. On that day, 
the memorable battle of Worcester took place, in which Charles 
was defeated with great loss, and with difficulty made his escape. 
Though the parliament offered a reward of one thousand pounds 
for his person, and denounced the penalties of treason against those 
who should afford him shelter ; though parties of horse and foot 
scoured the adjacent counties in search of so valuable a prize; though 
the magistrates received orders to arrest every unknown person, 
and to keep a strict watch on the seaports in their neighborhood, 
yet no trace of his flight, no clue to his retreat could be discovered. 
Week after week passed away ; of almost every other individual 
of note the fate was ascertained ; that of Charles Stuart remained 
an impenetrable mystery. At last, when a belief prevailed, both 
among his friends and foes, that he had met with death from the 
peasantry, ignorant of his person and quality, the intelligence ar- 
rived, that, on the 17th of October, forty -four days after the battle, 
he had landed in safety at Fecamp, on the coast of Normandy. 
Charles had been protected by four brothers, laboring men, of 



550 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1651. 



the name of Penderell, and of Yates, his former guide, who had 
Adventures of married a sister of the Penderells. He could not 
Charles. conceal from himself that their poverty might 

make them more accessible to temptation ; but his friends con- 
jured him to dismiss such thoughts; they were men of tried 
fidelity, who, born in the domain, and bred in the principles of a 
loyal and Catholic family, had long been successfully employed in 
screening priests and cavaliers from the searches of the civil ma- 
gistrates and military officers. By one of them, suruamed the 
trusty Richard, he was one day led into the thickest part of a 
wood near Boscobel House, while others posted themselves at 
convenient stations, to descry and announce the approach of the 
enemy. About nine in the evening they left the wood together 
for the house of Mr. Wolf, a Catholic recusant at Madeley, not 
far from the Severn ; but an accidental alarm lengthened their 
road, and added to the fatigue of the royal wanderer. They 
reached Madeley at midnight ; Wolf was roused from his bed, 
and the strangers obtained admission. But their host felt no 
small alarm for their safety. Troops were frequently quartered 
upon him ; two companies of militia actually kept watch in the 
village, and the places of concealment in his house had been re- 
cently discovered. All the bridges were guarded, and all the 
boats secured, which compelled the unfortunate prince to aban- 
don his design of going into Wales. On the next night he placed 
himself again under the care of his trusty guide, and,- with a 
heavy and misboding heart, retraced his steps toward his original 
destination, the house of Boscobel. At Boscobel he found Colonel 
Careless, one of his devoted adherents ; and, by his persuasion, 
Charles consented to pass the day with him amid the branches 
of an old and lofty oak. This celebrated tree, which was after- 
ward destroyed to satisfy the veneration of the cavaliers, grew 
near to the common path in the meadow-field, which lay in the 
centre of the wood. It had been partially lopped a few years be- 
fore, and the new shoots had thrown round it a thick and luxu- 
riant foliage. Within this cover the king and his companion 
passed the day. Invisible themselves, they occasionally caught a 
glimpse of the soldiers passing among the trees, and sometimes 
saw them look into the meadow. A plan of escape was now sub- 
mitted to his approbation. The daughter of Colonel Lane, of 



1651 A. D.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 551 



Bentley, had obtained from the governor of Stafford a pass to 
visit Mrs. Norton, a relation near Bristol. Charles consented to 
assume the character of her servant, and Lord Wilmot departed 
on the following night to make arrangements for his reception. 
It took but little time to transform Charles into a domestic ser- 
vant. He departed on horseback with his supposed mistress be- 
hind him, accompanied by her cousin, Mr. Lassells ; and, after a 
journey of three days, reached Abbotsleigh, Mr. Norton's house, 
without interruption or danger. He soon afterward escaped to 
the coast of Sussex, and got across to France, where he was re- 
ceived with a warm welcome. 

In Ireland, Ireton, to whom Cromwell, with the title of lord 
deputy, had left the chief command, pursued with little interrup- 
tion the career of his victorious predecessor. Sir p rog ress of the 
Charles Coote met the men of Ulster and Letter- Wttr in Irelaud - 
kenny • after a long and sanguinary action they were defeated ; 
and the next day their leader, Mac Mahon, the warrior bishop of 
Clogher, was made prisoner by a fresh corps of troops from Innis- 
killing. Lady Fitzgerald, a name as illustrious in the military 
annals of Ireland as that of Lady Derby in those of England, 
defended the fortress of Trccoghan, but neither the efforts of Sir 
Robert Talbot within, nor the gallant attempt of Lord Castlehaven 
without, could prevent its surrender. Watcrford, Carlow, and 
Charlemont accepted honorable conditions, and the garrison of 
Duncaftnon, reduced to a handful of men by the ravages of the 
plague, opened its gates to the enemy. For a time the Irish had 
cherished the expectation that the young monarch would, as he 
had repeatedly promised, come to Ireland and take the reins of 
government into his hands ; they now, to their disappointment, 
learned that he had accepted the invitation of the Scots, their 
sworn and inveterate enemies. In a short time, the conditions to 
which he had subscribed began to transpire ; that he had bound 
himself by oath, not only not to permit the exercise of the Catho- 
lic worship, but to root out the Catholic religion wherever it ex- 
isted in any of his dominions. This intelligence caused a general 
gloom and despondency. Charles's representative, Ormond, felt 
that it was time for him to leave Ireland ; but before his depar- 
ture, he called a general assembly, and selected the marquess of 
Clanricard, a Catholic nobleman, to command as his deputy. Ire- 



552 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1651. 



ton, who anticipated nothing less than the entire reduction of the 
island, opened the campaign in the summer of 1651, with the 
siege of Limerick. The conditions which he offered were refused 
by the inhabitants, and, at their request, Hugh O'Neil, with 
three thousand men, undertook the defence of the city, but with 
an understanding that the keys of the gates and the government 
of the place should remain in the possession of the mayor. Both 
parties displayed a valor and obstinacy worthy of the prize for 
which they fought. But in October a reinforcement of three 
thousand men from England arrived in the camp ; a battery was 
formed of the heavy cannon landed from the shipping in the har- 
bor; and a wide breach in the wall admonished the inhabitants 
to prepare for an assault. In this moment of suspense, with the 
dreadful example of Drogheda and Wexford before their eyes, 
they met at the town-hall. It was in vain that O'Neil remon- 
strated; that the bishops of Limerick and Emly entreated and 
threatened ; Stretch, the mayor, gave the keys to Colonel Fan- 
ning, who seized St. John's gate, turned the cannon on the city, 
and admitted two hundred of the besiegers. A treaty was now 
concluded; and, if the garrison and inhabitants preserved their 
lives and property, it was by abandoning twenty-two individuals 
to the mercy of the conquerors. Ireton died soon afterward of a 
pestilential disease which ravaged the West of Ireland. His death 
proved a severe loss to the commonwealth, not only on account 
of his abilities as an officer, but because it removed the principal 
check to the inordinate ambition of Cromwell. He was succeeded 
by General Ludlow. 

During the next winter the confederates had leisure to reflect 
on their forlorn condition. Charles indeed, a second time an exile, 
solicited them to persevere; but it was difficult to persuade 
men to hazard their lives and fortunes without the remotest pros- 
pect of benefit to themselves or to the royal cause. Lord Mus- 
kerry, indeed, collected five thousand men on the borders of Cork 
and Kerry, but was obliged to retire before his opponents : his 
strong fortress of Ross opened its gates ; and, after some hesita- 
tion, he made his submission. In the north, Clanricard reduced 
Ballyshannon and Donegal ; but there his career ended ; and 
Coote (one of Cromwell's generals) drove him into the isle of 
Carrick, where he was compelled to accept the usual conditions. 



1652 A. D.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 553 



The last chieftain of note who braved the arms of the common- 
wealth was Colonel Richard Grace : he, at last, capitulated, and 
the subjugation of Ireland was completed. 

It soon became a question how to dispose of the wives and 
families of those who had perished by the ravages of disease and 
the casualties of war, and of the multitudes, who, The inha1j ; tants 
chased from their homes and employments, were sold as sla "fes. 
reduced to a state of utter destitution. These at different times, 
to the amount of several thousands, were collected in bodies, 
driven on shipboard, and conveyed to the West Indies, where 
they were sold as slaves. At first it was sought to exterminate 
the Catholics altogether; but when this failed, another project 
was adopted of confining the Catholic landholders to Connaught 
and Clare, beyond the river Shannon, and of di- Efforts to exter- 

.,. ,, ., r>,i-i it-. -*t inmate the Catho- 

viding the remainder of the island, Leinster, Mun- lies. The cruelties 
ster, and Ulster, among Protestant colonists. No them! se agamst 
Catholic was permitted to reside within any garrison or market- 
town, or to remove more than one mile from his own dwelling 
without a passport describing his person, age, and occupation ; 
every meeting of four persons beside the family was pronounced 
an illegal and treasonable assembly; to carry arms, or to have 
arms at home, was made a capital offence ; and any " transplanted" 
Irishman, who was found on the left bank of the Shannon, might 
be put to death by the first person who met him, without the or- 
der of a magistrate. Seldom has any nation been reduced to a 
state of bondage more galling and oppressive. Under the pre- 
tence of the violation of these laws, their feelings were outraged, 
and their blood was shed with impunity. They held their pro- 
perty, their liberty, and their lives at the will of the petty des- 
pots around them, foreign planters, and the commanders of mili- 
tary posts, who were stimulated by revenge and interest to depress 
and exterminate the native population. The religion of the Irish 
proved an additional source of solicitude to their fanatical con- 
querors. All Catholic clergymen were ordered to quit Ireland 
within twenty days, under the penalties of high-treason, and all 
other persons were forbidden to harbor any such clergymen under 
the pain of death. Additional provisions tending to the same 
object followed in succession. Whoever knew of the concealment 
of a priest, and did not reveal it to the proper authorities, was 

2K 47 



554 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1652. 



made liable to the punishment of a public whipping and the am- 
putation of his ears ; to be absent on a Sunday from the service 
at the parish church, subjected the offender to a fine of thirty 
pence; and the magistrates were authorized to take away the 
children of Catholics and send them to England for education, 
and to tender the oath of abjuration to all persons of the age of 
one and twenty years, the refusal of which subjected them to im- 
prisonment during pleasure, and to the forfeiture of two-thirds of 
their estates real and personal. During this period the Catholic 
clergy were exposed to a persecution far more severe than had ever 
been previously experienced in the island. Of the many priests who 
still remained in the country, several were discovered, and forfeited 
their lives on the gallows ; those who escaped detection concealed 
themselves in the caverns of the mountains, or in lonely hovels 
raised in the midst of the morasses, whence they issued during 
the night to carry the consolations of religion to the huts of their 
oppressed and suffering countrymen. A proclamation was also 
issued ordering all nuns to marry or leave Ireland. They were 
successively transported to Belgium, France, and Spain, where 
they were hospitably received in the convents of their respective 
orders. 

In Scotland, the power of the commonwealth was as firmly esta- 
blished as in Ireland. All authority derived from any other source 
The condition of * nan * ne parliament of England was abolished by 
Scotland. proclamation; the different sheriffs, and civil of- 

ficers of doubtful fidelity, were removed for others attached to the 
commonwealth ; a yearly tax of one hundred and thirty thousand 
pounds was imposed in lieu of free quarters for the support of 
the army; and English judges, assisted by three or four natives, 
were appointed to go the circuits, and to supersede the courts of 
session. The parliament next resolved to incorporate the two 
countries into one commonwealth, without kingly government or 
the aristocratical influence of a house of peers. This was thought 
to fill up the measure of Scottish misery. For there is a pride 
in the independence of his country, of which even the peasant 
is conscious. But, before the plan could be amicably adjusted, 
the parliament itself, with all its projects, was overturned by the 
successful ambition of Cromwell. 

At this period, several naval engagements took place between 



1653 A. D.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 555 



Van Tromp, a distinguished Dutch admiral, and Blake, who com- 
manded the English fleet. Both displayed great talent. Our 
space does not permit us in this abridgment to dwell upon their 
actions. 

To return to Cromwell : when he resumed his seat in the house, 
in 1651, he had reminded the members of their indifference to 
two measures earnestly desired by the country, the Cromwell ais- 

„ ,, ..„, solves the parlia- 

act oi amnesty and the termination ot the present ment. 
parliament. An act of oblivion was obtained, which, with some 
exceptions, pardoned all offences committed before the battle of 
Worcester, and relieved the minds of the royalists from the ap- 
prehension of additional forfeitures. On the question of the ex- 
piration of parliament, after several warm debates, the period was 
fixed for the 3d of November, 1654. Cromwell resolved on a 
plan to procure the dissolution of the parliament, and vest for a 
time the sovereign authority in a council of forty persons, with 
himself at their head. Finding he could not succeed without 
force, he ordered some soldiers to accompany him to the house, 
on the 20th April, 1653. Leaving the military in the lobby, he 
entered the house, and composedly seated himself on one of the 
outer benches. His dress was a plain suit of black cloth, with 
gray worsted stockings. For a while he seemed to listen with 
interest to the debate; but, when the speaker was going to put 
the question, he whispered to Harrison, "This is the time: I must 
do it;" and rising, put off his hat to address the house. At first, 
his language was decorous and even laudatory. Gradually he be- 
came more warm and animated : at last he assumed all the vehe- 
mence of passion, and indulged in personal vituperation. He 
charged the members with self-seeking and profaneness; with 
the frequent denial of justice, and numerous acts of oppression. 
He then paced forward and backward, and then stamping on the 
floor, added, "You are no parliament. I say you are no parlia- 
ment: bring them in, bring them in." Instantly the door opened, 
and Colonel Worseley entered, followed by more than twenty 
musketeers. Colonel Harrison took the speaker by the hand, 
and led him from the chair ; Algernon Sidney was next compell- 
ed to quit his seat; and the other members, eighty in number, 
on the approach of the military, rose and moved toward the 
door. When all were gone, fixing his eye on the mace, " What," 



556 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1653. 

said he, "shall we do with this fool's bauble? Here, carry it 
away." Then, taking the act of dissolution from the clerk, he 
ordered the doors to be locked, and, accompanied by the military, 
returned to "Whitehall. Thus, by the parricidal hands of its own 
children, perished the long parliament, which, under a variety 
of forms, had, for more than twelve years, defended and invaded 
the liberties of the nation. It fell without a struggle or a groan, 
unpitied and unregretted. It would, however, be unjust to the 
memory of those who exercised the supreme power after the 
death of the king, not to acknowledge that there existed among 
them men capable of wielding with energy the destinies of a 
great empire. It could not escape the sagacity of Cromwell that 
the fanatics, with whose aid he had subverted the late govern- 
ment, were not the men to be intrusted with the destinies of the 
three kingdoms; yet, he deemed it his interest to indulge them 
in their wild notions of civil and religious reformation, and to 
suffer himself for a while to be guided by their counsels. They 
soon proceeded to establish a council of state. With Cromwell, 
in the place of lord president, were joined four civilians and 
eight officers of high rank ; so that the army still retained its 
ascendency, and the council of state became in fact a military 
council. 

Without any election being allowed, Cromwell summoned one 
hundred and thirty-nine representatives for England, six for 
The Barebone W a ^ es ? s i x f° r Ireland, and five for Scotland. To 
Parliament. eacn f them was sent a writ of summons under 

the signature of Cromwell, requiring his personal attendance at 
Whitehall on a certain day, to take upon himself the trust, and 
to serve the office of member for some particular place. On the 
appointed day, the 4th of July, one hundred and twenty of 
these " faithful and godly" men attended in the council-chamber 
at Whitehall. They were seated on chairs round the table; and 
Cromwell took his station near the middle window, supported on 
each side by a numerous body of officers. He placed on the 
table an instrument under his own hand and seal, intrusting to 
them the supreme authority for the space of fifteen months from 
that day, then to be transmitted by them to another assembly, 
the members of which they should previously have chosen. 
Though not distinguished by their opulence, they were men of 



1653 A. D.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 557 



independent fortunes; during the late revolutions they had 
learned to think for themselves on the momentous questions 
which divided the nation; and their fanaticism, by converting 
their opinions into matters of conscience, had superadded an ob- 
stinacy of character not easily to be subdued. They have been 
gradually described as men in trade, and of no education; and 
because one of them, Praise-God Barebones, was a leather-dealer 
in Fleet street, the assembly is generally known by the denomi- 
nation of Barebones' Parliament. They established a system of 
the most rigid economy; the regulations of the excise were re- 
vised; the constitution of the treasury was simplified and im- 
proved; unnecessary offices were totally abolished, and the sala- 
ries of the others considerably reduced; the public accounts were 
subjected to the most rigorous scrutiny; new facilities were given 
to the sale of the lands now considered as national property. 
Provision was made for the future registration of marriages, 
births, and deaths. But the fanaticism of their language, and 
the extravagance of their notions, exposed them to ridicule. 
Some of their proceedings were very displeasing to Cromwell, 
and, accordingly, he soon dissolved the assembly. A new consti- 
tution was soon published, and Cromwell at last obtained the 
great object of his ambition — the office and authority, though 
without the title, of king. The title he received was that of 
lord protector. 

Cromwell soon published three ordinances, by wbieh, of his 
supreme authority, he incorporated Scotland with England, ab- 
solved the natives from their allegiance to Charles The firgt ^g of 
Stuart, abolished the kingly office and the Scottish the protector. 
parliament, with all tenures and superiorities importing servitude 
and vassalage, erected courts-baron to supply the place of the juris- 
dictions which he had taken away, and granted a free pardon to 
the nation, with the exception of numerous individuals whom he 
subjected to different degrees of punishment. Thus the whole 
frame of the Scottish constitution was subverted : yet no one 
ventured to remonstrate or oppose, for the spirit of the nation had 
been broken. 

By foreign powers the recent elevation of Cromwell was viewed 
without surprise. They were aware of his ambition, and had 
anticipated his success. All who had reason to hope from his 

47* 



558 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. . [A. D. 1654. 



friendship, or to fear from his enmity, offered their congratula- 
tions, and ambassadors and envoys from most of the princes of 
Europe crowded to the court of the protector. He received them 
with all the state of a sovereign. A treaty with the United Pro- 
vinces was the first which engaged the attention of the protector, 
and was not concluded till repeated victories, in one of which Van 
Tromp was killed, had proved the superiority of the English navy, 
and a protracted negotiation had exhausted the patience of the 
States. On the 5th of April, 1653, after a negotiation of ten 
months, the peace was definitively signed. 

A new parliament was called in September, 1654, in which 

Meeting of par- Cromwell found many who were opposed to his 
liament. sway. The leaders of the opposition were Brad- 

shaw, Hazlerig, and Scot, who contended that the existing govern- 
ment emanated from an incompetent authority, and stood in oppo- 
sition to the solemn determination of a legitimate parliament. 
A motion to limit the succession to Cromwell's family was ne- 
gatived by a division of two hundred against eighty voices ; and 
it was resolved that, on the death of the protector, his successor 
should be chosen by the parliament if it were sitting, and by the 
council in the absence of parliament. Cromwell soon dissolved 
the parliament. A rising of royalists took place at this time, but 
was without much difficulty suppressed. 

Cromwell now became thoroughly tyrannical, and the long and 
sanguinary struggle, which was originally undertaken to recover 

The tyranny of tne liberties of the country, terminated in the esta- 
Cromweii. blishment of a military despotism. The institutions 

which had acted as restraints on the power of preceding sovereigns 
were superseded or abolished ; the legislative, as well as the exe- 
cutive authority, fell into the grasp of the same individual ; and 
the best rights of the people were made to depend on the mere 
pleasure of an adventurer, who, under the mask of dissimulation, 
had seized, and by the power of the sword retained, the govern- 
ment of three kingdoms. 

Cromwell again called a parliament ; but the result of the 
elections revealed to him the alarming secret, that the antipathy 
to his government was more deeply rooted, and more widely spread, 
than he had previously imagined. The whole nation was in a 
ferment ; and in several counties the court candidates were rejected. 



1656 A. D.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 559 

Cromwell, however, gave orders to prevent the admission of his 
opponents into the house. Several members, to show their dis- 
approbation, voluntarily seceded, and those, who had been ex- 
cluded by force, published in bold and indignant language an ap- 
peal to the justice of the people. At this period the Society of 
Friends first appeared, the members of which suffered much per- 
secution. 

Cromwell next revolved in his own mind a secret project of the 
first importance to himself and the country. To Cromwell aspire g 
his ambition, it was not sufficient that he actually to the title of king, 
possessed the supreme authority, and exercised it with more des- 
potic sway than any of his legitimate prodecessors ; he still sought 
to mount a step higher, to encircle his brows with a diadem, and 
to be addressed with the title of majesty. It chanced that a plot 
against the protector's life was, at this time, discovered and de- 
feated. The circumstance furnished an opportunity favorable to 
his views ; and the re-establishment of " kingship" was mentioned 
in the house, not as a project originating from him, but as the 
accidental and spontaneous suggestion of others. The detection 
of the conspiracy was followed by an address of congratulation to 
the protector, who, on his part, gave to the members a princely 
entertainment at Whitehall. At their next meeting, the question 
of kingship was regularly brought before them. Several officers 
instantly started from their seats, and the mover was violently 
borne down to the bar : the house debated each article in suc- 
cession, but the project was finally adopted. As long as the 
question was before parliament, Cromwell bore himself in public 
as if he were unconcerned in the result ; but his mind was secretly 
harassed by the reproaches of his friends and by the misgivings 
of his conscience. He saw, for the first time, marshalled against 
him the men who had stood by him in his different fortunes. 
The marked opposition of these men had given energy to the 
proceedings of the inferior officers, who formed themselves into a 
permanent council under the very eyes of Cromwell, passed votes 
in disapprobation of the proposed- alteration, and to the number 
of one hundred waited on him to acquaint him with their senti- 
ments. He replied, that there was a time when they felt no ob- 
jection of the title of king ; for the army had offered it to him 
with the original instrument of government. He had rejected it 



5G0 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [A. D. 1657. 

then, and had no greater love for it now. In the mean while the 
new form of government had received the sanction of the house. 
Cromwell, when it was laid before him, had recourse to his usual 
arts, openly refusing that for which he ardently longed. At 
length it was whispered at court that the protector had resolved to 
accept the title ; and immediately Lambert, Fleetwood, and Des- 
borough made to him, in their own names and those of several 
others, the unpleasant declaration, that they must resign their 
commissions, and sever themselves from his councils and service 
for ever. This bold step subdued the protector. He abandoned 
the lofty hopes to which he had so long, so pertinaciously clung, 
despatched Fleetwood to the house to prevent a debate, and shortly 
afterward summoned the members to meet him at Whitehall. 
Addressing them with more than his usual embarrassment, he 
said, that neither his own reflections nor the reasoning of the 
committee had convinced him that he ought to accept the title of 
king ; and thus ended the mighty farce which for more than two 
months held in suspense the hopes and fears of three nations. 
Several changes were, however, now made. The supreme autho- 
rity was vested in the protector ; but, instead of rendering it 
hereditary in his family, the most which he could obtain was the 
power of nominating his immediate successor. The two houses 
of parliament were restored, and to Cromwell was given the power 
of nominating the members of the " other house," (he dared not 
yet term it the house of lords;) but, in the first instance, the 
persons so nominated were to be approved by the house of repre- 
sentatives, and afterward by the " other house" itself. 

In the eyes of the superficial observer, Cromwell might now ap- 
pear to have reached the zenith of power and greatness. At home 
he had discovered, defeated, and punished several conspiracies 
against him ; abroad, his army had gained laurels in the field ; 
his fleets swept the seas; and his friendship was sought by every 
power. The real fact however was, that his authority in England 
never rested on a more precarious footing than at the present mo- 
ment; while, on the other hand, the cares and anxieties of govern- 
ment, joined to his apprehensions of assassination, and the pressure 
of domestic affliction, were rapidly undermining his constitution, 
and hurrying him from the gay and glittering visions of ambition 
to the darkness and silence of the tomb. 



1658 A. D.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 5Q1 



It is said that he wore defensive armor under his clothes ; car- 
ried loaded pistols in his pockets ; sought to remain in privacy ; 
and, when he found it necessary to give audience, His fears ami 
sternly watched the eyes and gestures of those who anxiet y- 
addressed him. He had often faced death without flinching in 
the field ; but his spirit broke under the continual fear of unknown 
and invisible foes. He passed the nights in a state of feverish 
anxiety ; sleep fled from his pillow ; and for more than a year 
before his death, we always find the absence of rest assigned as 
either the cause which produced, or a circumstance which aggra- 
vated, his numerous ailments. 

The selfishness of ambition does not exclude the more kindly feel- 
ings of domestic affection. Cromwell was sincerely attached to 
his children ; but, among them, he gave the pre- The death of 
ference to his daughter Elizabeth Claypole. She Cromwe11 - 
was now dying. Cromwell abandoned the business of state that 
he might hasten to Hampton Court, to console his favorite daugh- 
ter. He frequently visited her, remained long in her apartment, 
and, whenever he quitted it, seemed to be absorbed in the deepest 
melancholy. She died. The protector was already confined to 
his bed with the gout, and, though he had anticipated the event, 
some days elapsed before he recovered from the shock. A slow 
fever still remained. For change of air he had removed to White- 
hall, till the palace of St. James should be ready for his reception. 
There his fever became a double tertian, his strength rapidly wasted 
away, and he died on the 3d September, 1658. It was his "for- 
tunate day," a circumstance from which his sorrowing relatives 
derived a new source of consolation. It was, they observed, on 
the 3d of September that he overcame the Scots at Dunbar ; on 
that day, he also overcame the royalists at Worcester ; and on the 
same day, he was destined (they said) to overcome his spiritual 
enemies, and to receive the crown of victory in heaven. 

Till the commencement of the present century, when Bona- 
parte arose, who, by the splendor of his victories and the extent 
of his empire, cast all preceding adventurers into Reflections 
the shade, the name of Cromwell stood without a 
parallel in the history of civilized Europe. Men looked with a 
feeling of awe on the fortunate individual who, without the aid 
of birth, or wealth, or connections, was able to seize the govern- 



562 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1658. 

ment of three powerful kingdoms, and to impose the yoke of ser- 
vitude on the necks of the very men who had fought in his com- 
pany to emancipate themselves from the less arbitrary sway of 
their hereditary sovereign. That he who accomplished this was no 
ordinary personage, all must admit; and yet, on close investigation, 
we shall discover little that was sublime or dazzling in his charac- 
ter. Cromwell was not the meteor which surprises and astounds 
by the rapidity and brilliancy of its course. Cool, cautious, calcu- 
lating, he stole on with slow and measured pace ; and, while with 
secret pleasure he toiled up the ascent to greatness, labored to 
persuade the spectators that he was reluctantly borne foward by 
an exterior and resistless force, by the march of events, the neces- 
sities of the state, the will of the army, and even the decree of the 
Almighty. He seems to have looked upon dissimulation as the 
perfection of human wisdom, and to have made it the key-stone 
of the arch on which he built his fortunes. 

Cromwell left two sons, Richard and Henry. After the esta- 
blishment of the commonwealth, Richard married, and, retiring 
to the house of his father-in-law in Hampshire, devoted himself 
to the usual pursuits of a country gentleman. Henry accompanied 
his father in the reduction of Ireland, which country he afterward 
governed, first with the rank of major-general, afterward with that 
of lord deputy. 

The moment Oliver Cromwell expired, the council assembled, 
and the result of their deliberation was an order to proclaim Richard 

Richard Oom- Cromwell protector, on the ground that he had been 

well proclaimed pro- , , -iii.-ii.ii- • n , 

tector. declared by bis late bigbness bis successor in that 

dignity. Not a murmur of opposition was heard ; the ceremony 
was performed in all places after the usual manner of announcing 
the accession of a new sovereign ', addresses poured in from the 
army and navy, from several churches, and from the cities and coun- 
ties. 

The royalists, who had persuaded themselves that the whole 
fabric of the protectorial power would fall in pieces on the death 

Richard Crom- of Cromwell, beheld with amazement the general 
the government, acquiescence in the succession of Richard ; and the 
foreign princes, who had deemed it prudent to solicit the friend- 
ship of the father, now hastened to offer their congratulations to 
his son. Yet, fair and trancmil as the prospect appeared, an ex- 



1659 A. D.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 563 

perienced eye might easily detect the elements of an approaching 
storm ; for many said that to suffer the supreme power to devolve 
on Richard was to disgrace and to disinherit the men who had 
suffered so severely, and bled so profusely, in the contest. Be- 
tween Richard and the "long" parliament (which had reassem- 
bled) disputes arose, and the country was soon in a state of 
anarchy. The intentions of the armies in Scotland and Ireland 
remained uncertain ; and the royalists, both Presbyterians and 
Cavaliers, were exerting themselves to improve the general confu- 
sion to the advantage of the exiled king. Richard exercised no 
real authority, though he continued to occupy the state apartments 
at Whitehall. By repeated messages, he was ordered to retire ; 
and, on his promise to obey, the parliament granted him the pri- 
vilege of freedom from arrest during six months ; transferred his 
private debts to the account of the nation, gave him two thousand 
pounds as a relief to his present necessities, and voted that a yearly 
income of ten thousand pounds should be settled on him and his 
heirs, a grant easily made on paper, but never carried into execu- 
tion. The office of lord-general was abolished ; no intermediate 
rank between the lieutenant-general and the colonels was admitted; 
Fleetwood was named lieutenant-general, with the chief command 
in England and Scotland, but limited in its duration to a short 
period, revocable at pleasure, and deprived of several of those powers 
which had hitherto been annexed to it. 

Ever since the death of Oliver Cromwell, the exiled king had 
watched with intense interest the course of events in England ; and 
each day added a new stimulus to his hopes of a Rising in faTor 
favorable issue. In Cheshire the royal standard °f royalty- 
was unfurled by Sir George Booth, a person of considerable in- 
fluence in the county, and a recent convert to the cause of the 
Stuarts. At Chester, the parliamentary garrison retired into the 
castle, and the royalists took possession of the city. Each day 
brought to them a new accession of strength : and their apparent 
success taught them to augur equally well of other expected attempts 
throughout the kingdom. But the unwelcome truth could not 
long be concealed ; and when they learned that they stood alone, 
that the other risings had been either prevented or instantly sup- 
pressed, their confidence was exchanged for despair. The conduct 
of Monk now begins to claim a considerable share of our attention 



564 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1659. 

Ever since the march of Cromwell in pursuit of the king, in 1649, 
to Worcester, he had commanded in Scotland ; where, instead of 
concerning himself with the intrigues and parties in England, he 
appeared to have no other occupation than the duties of his place, 
to preserve the discipline of his army, and enforce the obedience 
of the Scots. After the fall of the protector Richard, he became 
an object of distrust. Lord Fairfax was also become a convert 
to the cause of monarchy ; to him the numerous royalists in York- 
shire looked up as leader ; and he, on the solemn assurance of 
Monk that he would join him within twelve days or perish in the 
attempt, undertook to call together his friends, and to surprise the 
city of York. On the first day of the new year, each performed 
his promise. The gates of York were thrown open to Fairfax by 
the Cavaliers confined within its walls; and Monk, with his army, 
crossed the Tweed. In parliament, the Presbyterian party now 
ruled without opposition. They appointed Monk commander-in- 
chief of the forces in the three kingdoms, and joint commander of 
the fleet with Admiral Montague. 

Nineteen years and a half had now elapsed since the " long" 
The " long" par- parliament first assembled — years of revolution 

liament is termi- ,,, nl11 . i • t i • ii 

nated. and bloodshed, during which the nation had made 

the trial of almost every form of government : it was resolved to 
return at last to that form from which it had previously departed. 
On the 16th of March, [1660,] its existence, which had been ille- 
gally prolonged since the death of Charles I., was terminated by 
its own voluntary act. The reader is already acquainted with its 
history. For the glorious stand which it made against the en- 
croachments of the crown, it deserves both admiration and grati- 
tude ; its subsequent proceedings assumed a more ambiguous 
character; ultimately they led to anarchy and military des- 
potism. 

Monk had now spent more than two months in England, and 
Monk sends a still his intentions were covered with a vail of mys- 

eommissioner to ... . . . . „ . .. y 

Charles. tery which no ingenuity, either of the royalists or 

of the republicans, could penetrate. He soon sent a message to 
Charles, who was at Brussels, advising him to promise a general 
or nearly general pardon, liberty of conscience, the confirmation 
of the national sales, and the payment of the arrears due to the 
army, and that he would aid in his restoration. By Charles the 



1660 A. D.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 565 

messenger was received as an angel from heaven. But when he 
communicated the glad tidings to Ormond, Hyde, and Nicholas, 
these councillors discovered that the advice suggested by Monk 
was derogatory to the interests of the throne and the personal 
character of the monarch, and composed a royal declaration 
which, while it professed to make to the nation the promises re- 
commended by Monk, in reality neutralized their effect, by sub- 
jecting them to such limitations as might afterward be imposed 
by the wisdom of parliament. Notwithstanding the alterations 
made at Brussels, Monk professed himself satisfied with the de- 
claration. Though he still declared himself a friend to republican 
government, he now ventured to assume a bolder tone. The 
militia of the city, amounting to fourteen thousand men, was al- 
ready embodied under his command; he had in his pocket a 
commission from Charles, appointing him lord-general over all 
the military in the three kingdoms ; and he resolved, should cir- 
cumstances compel him suddenly to throw off the mask, to pro- 
claim the king, and to summon every faithful subject to repair to 
the royal standard. A new parliament met on the 25th of April. 
Charles's letter was delivered to the two houses, and was well re- 
ceived. Encouraged by the bursts of loyalty with which the 
king's letter had been received, his friends made it Charles is invited 
their great object to procure his return to England to leturn - 
before limitations could be put on the prerogative. The two 
houses voted, that by the ancient and fundamental laws of the 
realm the government was and ought to be by king, lords, and 
commons ; and they invited Charles to come and receive the crown 
to which he was born. Charles was as eager to accept, as the 
houses had been to vote, the address of invitation. As soon as 
the weather permitted, he set sail for Dover, where Monk, at the 
head of the nobility and gentry from the neighboring counties, 
waited to receive the new sovereign. From Dover to the capital 
the king's progress bore the appearance of a triumphal pro- 
cession. 

That the re-establishment of royalty was a blessing to the 
country will hardly be denied. It presented the best, perhaps the 
only, means of restoring public tranquillity. To Monk belongs 
the merit of having, by his foresight and caution, effected this 
desirable object without bloodshed or violence; but, to his dis- 

43 



566 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A.D. 1G60. 



praise, it must also be recorded, that he effected it without any 
previous stipulation on the part of the exiled monarch. Never 
had so fair an opportunity been offered of establishing a compact 
between the sovereign and the people; of determining, by mutual 
consent, the legal rights of the crown, and of securing from future 
encroachment the freedom of the people. By the negligence or 
perfidy of Monk, a door was left open to the recurrence of dis- 
sension between the crown and the people ; and that very circum- 
stance, namely, his untrammelled return, which Charles had hailed 
as the consummation of his good fortune, served only to prepare 
the way for a second revolution, which ended in the permanent 
exclusion of his family from the government of these kingdoms. 



CHAPTER XXXV 



Charles calls a new Parliament — Affairs in Ireland — War with the Dutch — 
Plague in London— The Great Fire— War with Holland— The " Test Act"— 
Oates's Plot — Bill of Exclusion — Rye-House Plot — Death, and Character of 
Charles.— From A. D. 1660 to 1685. 

The convention parliament was soon dissolved, and Charles 
called a new parliament after the ancient and legitimate form. 
The result of the elections showed that the fervid loyalty which 
blazed forth at his restoration, had, in the interval, suffered but 

Proceeding of little abatement. This parliament, at the com- 

Cbarles's first par- „ . , . , , , 

liameut. mencement ot its long career, passed several laws 

of the highest importance, both in regard to the pretensions 
of the crown and the civil and religious liberties of the people. 
The Solemn League and Covenant, with the acts for erecting a 
high court of justice for the trial of Charles Stuart, and others 
of the same nature, were ordered to be burnt in the midst of 
Westminster Hall by the hands of the common hangman. The 



1663 A. D.] CHARLES THE SECOND. 567 

Presbyterians met to consult and remonstrate; but their synods 
were everywhere dispersed by the government. 

In England, the demands of justice were satisfied with the 
blood of several regicides: to expiate the guilt of Scotland, a 
more illustrious victim was selected, the marquess of Argyle. 
Charles seemed inclined to save him, but his enemies were inex- 
orable. He was tried, and executed in May, 1661. 

In Ireland, a new race of proprietors had arisen — soldiers and 
adventurers of English birth, who, during the late revolutionary 
period, had shared among themselves the lands of Affairs in ire- 
the natives, whether royalists or Catholics. On d> 
the fall of Richard Cromwell, a council of officers was established 
in Dublin ; these summoned a convention of deputies from the 
Protestant proprietors; and the convention tendered to Charles 
the obedience of his ancient kingdom of Ireland. The present 
was graciously accepted; and the penal laws against the Irish 
Catholics were ordered to be strictly enforced. The first mea- 
sure recommended to him by his English advisers, with respect 
to Ireland, was the re-establishment of episcopacy. Charles ac- 
cordingly directed the surviving bishops to take possession of 
their respective dioceses, and nominated new prelates to the 
vacant sees. The settlement of landed property in Ireland fol- 
lowed. 

In 1660, James, duke of York, was married to Anne, the 
daughter of the chancellor Hyde. In 1661, Charles married 
Catherine, sister of the king of Spain. The prin- The marriage of 
cess brought a dower of five hundred thousand Charles - 
pounds, the possession of Tangier on the coast of Africa, and 
of Bombay in the East Indies, and a free trade to Portugal and 
the Portuguese colonies. Charles's conduct toward her at first 
was attentive, but he soon forgot his duty to God and his wife, 
by plunging into a life of licentiousness. 

Charles, who wanted money, sold Dunkirk, in 1663, to the 
king of France, by the advice of Clarendon. This sale of Dun- 
kirk had no small influence on the subsecpaent fortune of each. 
The possession of it had flattered the national pride; for it was 
looked on as a compensation for the loss of Calais. The public 
discontent began to be openly expressed; Charles saw a for- 
midable party growing up against him; and Clarendon, after a 



568 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1665. 



protracted struggle, submitted to his fate, and fled to the conti- 
nent. 

In 16G5, Charles entered on a war with the Dutch, on account 
of commercial disputes respecting the African trade. The most 

War with the formidable fleet that England had as yet witnessed 
Dutch - sailed under James. The duke, despising the 

narrow prejudices of party, had called around him the seamen 
who fought and conquered in the last war; and, for more than a 
month, his armament insulted the coast of Holland, and rode tri- 
umphant in the German Ocean. At length an easterly wind 
drove the English to their own shores, and the Dutch fleet im- 
mediately put to sea under Admiral Opdam. Early in the morn- 
ing of the 3d June, the hostile fleets descried each other near 
Lowestoffe. A severe engagement took place, in which James 
displayed much valor. Opdam was killed; and the Dutch, 
alarmed at the loss of their commander, fled. 

In the depths of the previous winter, two or three isolated 
cases of plague had occurred in the outskirts of the metropolis ; 

Plague in Lon- and, about the end of May, under the influence of 
don - a warmer sun, and with the aid of a close and 

stagnant atmosphere, the evil burst forth in all its terrors. Pro- 
vision was made for the speedy interment of the dead. In the 
daytime, officers were always on the watch to withdraw from pub- 
lic view the bodies of those who expired in the streets; during 
the night, the tinkling of a bell, accompanied with the glare of 
links, announced the approach of the pest-cart, making its round 
to receive the victims of the last twenty-four hours. The cart 
proceeded to the nearest cemetery, and shot its burdan into a 
large common grave. In September, the plague began to abate. 
In January, 1666, the French monarch, Louis, though with 
many expressions of regret, declared war against England, by 
virtue of a treaty which had linked France and Holland, in 
1662. The French agent at Copenhagen prevailed on the king 
of Denmark to withdraw from his alliance with England, and to 
make common cause with the States. Charles, on his side, con- 
cluded a treaty with the king of Sweden, by which each party 
engaged not to furnish munitions of war to the enemies of the 
other. 

From the war which now raged in the British seas, our atten- 



1GG7 A. D.] CHARLES THE SECOND. 569 



tion must for a time be called to the great fire which, at this 
period, consumed a largo portion of London. About two in the 
morning of Sunday, the 2d of September, 1666, Great fire in 
a fire burst out in Pudding-lane, near Fish-street, Loncloa - 
one of the most crowded quarters of the metropolis. It origin- 
ated in a bakehouse ; the buildings in the neighborhood, formed 
of wood, with pitched roofs, quickly caught the flames; and the 
stores with which they were filled, consisting of those combusti- 
ble articles used in the equipment of shipping, nourished the 
conflagration. During the day, the wind, which blew from the 
east, hourly augmented in violence ; and the fire spread with as- 
tonishing velocity, leaping from roof to roof, and frequently ignit- 
ing houses at a distance, and in apparent security. The lurid 
glare of the sky, the oppressive heat of the atmosphere, the 
crackling of the flames, and the falling of the houses and 
churches, combined to fill every breast with astonishment and 
terror. Charles never appeared so deeply affected as at the sight 
of the conflagration. Wherever the danger appeared the great- 
est, the king was to be found with his brother James, mixing 
among the workmen, animating them by his example, and with 
his own hand rewarding their exertions. He divided the city 
into districts, and gave the command of each district to one of 
the privy council. He ordered biscuits and other necessaries to 
be brought from the royal stores for the relief of the families in 
the fields, and sent out strong patrols of his guards to prevent 
robbery. In many places houses were blown up or demolished; 
but the ignited flakes were carried over the empty space, or the 
ruins again took fire, or the flames unexpectedly turned in a new 
direction. With the aid of gunpowder, large openings were 
made; Charles attended at the demolition of several houses; and 
the conflagration, being thus prohibited from extending its ra- 
vages, gradually died away, though months elapsed before the 
immense accumulation of ruins ceased to present appearances of 
internal heat and combustion. By this deplorable accident two- 
thirds of the metropolis, the whole space from the Tower to the 
Temple, had been reduced to ashes. The number of houses 
consumed amounted to 13,200; of churches, including old St. 
Paul's, to 89. 

In May, 1667, the Dutch fleet appeared off the coast of Eng- 



570 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1667. 



land, but the English government was not taken by surprise. 

The Dutch fleet The warnings of the duke of York had awakened 
English coast them to a sense of the danger; and, three months 
before, orders had been issued to raise a fort at Sheemess, to 
throw a boom across the Medway at the stakes, to mount the 
guns on the batteries, and to prepare a competent number of fire- 
ships. At the first alarm, Monk, by the royal order, hastened 
to the mouth of the Medway. lie erected batteries, moored 
guard-ships for the protection of the boom, and sunk five ships 
before it in the narrowest part of the channel. He had not com- 
pleted these preparations, when the Dutch advanced with the 
wind and tide in their favor; but the obstruction in the passage 
opposed an insuperable bar to their progress, and they were com- 
pelled to fall back with the ebb. During the night, however, 
they discovered a new channel, sufficiently deep for large ships 
at high water, and in the morning worked their way without im- 
pediei},t. The Dutch fleet advanced triumphantly up the Thames; 
out the commander, whether he had fully executed his orders, or 
was intimidated by the warm reception which he experienced 
from the river forts, soon fell down the river. For six weeks De 
Ruyter, the Dutch admiral, continued to sweep the English coast. 
But his attempts to burn the ships at Portsmouth, Plymouth, 
and Torbay were successively defeated; and, though he twice 
threatened to remount the Thames, the spirited opposition with 
which he was received induced him to renounce the design. A 
treaty was soon afterward concluded between England and Hol- 
land. 

In 1668, Lord Chancellor Clarendon having^ by haughty and 
overbearing conduct, created many enemies, was deprived of his 
office, and driven into exile having been accused of malpractices. 
In exile he spent most of his time relieving with literary compo- 
sition the tedium of banishment, and repeatedly soliciting per- 
mission to revisit his native country, that he might breathe his 
last in the company of his children. But Charles treated these 
prayers with neglect, and the unfortunate exile died, in 1674, at 
ftouen in Normandy. 

In 1668, Charles received an important communication from 

his brother James. Hitherto, that prince had been an obedient 
and zealous son of the Church of England; but Dr. Heylin's 



1671 A. D.] 



CHARLES THE SECOND. 



571 



History of the Reformation had shaken his reli- James, the king's 

J _ brother declares 

gious credulity, and the result of the inquiry was himself a Catholic. 
a conviction that it became his duty to reconcile himself with the 
Church of Rome. He communicated to the king in private that 
he was determined to embrace the Catholic faith; and Charles, 
without hesitation, replied that he was of the same mind, and 
would consult with the duke on the subject in the presence of 
some peers. The meeting was held in the duke's closet. Charles, 
with tears in his eyes, lamented the hardship of being compelled 
to profess a religion which he did not approve, declared his deter- 
mination to emancipate himself from this restraint, and requested 
the opinion of those present, as to the most eligible means of ef- 
fecting his purpose with safety and success. They advised him 
to communicate his intention to Louis, and to solicit the powerful 
aid of that monarch. He was the most accomplished dissembler 
in his dominions; nor will it be any injustice to his character to 
suspect that his real object was to deceive both his brother and 
the king of France. The secret negotiation, however, proceeded 
with greater activity; and Lord Arundel hastened to the French 
court. He solicited from Louis the present of a considerable sum, 
to enable the king to suppress any insurrection which might be 
provoked by his intended conversion, to which proposal no direct 
objection was made. James, with all the fervor of a proselyte, 
urged his brother to publish his conversion without delay, while 
Louis, on the contrary, represented to the English king that a 
premature declaration might endanger his crown and his person. 
Thus, time passed away without Charles avowing any change to 
his subjects. 

The subject of the succession now began to claim much atten- 
tion. A boy of the name of Crofts, the reputed son of the king 
by Lucy Barlow, had been placed for education The duke of Mon . 
at the Oratory in Paris. Soon after the restora- mouth - 
tion he came to England : Charles ordered him to conform to the 
established church, created him duke of Monmouth, and gave to 
him in marriage the countess of Buccleugh, the most wealthy 
heiress in Scotland. Buckingham, observing the unbounded 
affection of the king for this young man, resolved to set him up 
as a competitor for the crown in opposition to the duke of York. 
In 1671, the duchess of York died at St. James's in her thirty- 



572 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1671. 



fourth year, having been the mother of eight children, of whom 
only two daughters survived her, Mary and Anne, both after- 
ward queens of England. She became a Catholic a short time 
before her death. 

In 1672, Louis and Charles, as allies, made war on Holland 
De Ruyter, with seventy-five men-of-war, and a considerable num- 
War with Hoi- ^er °^ fire-ships, stationed himself between Dover 
lantl - and Calais, to prevent the intended junction of 

the French and English fleets. The duke of York could muster 
no more than forty sail at the Nore ; but with these he contrived 
to join the French. The combined fleet now sailed in search of 
the enemy, whom they discovered lying before Ostend. But the 
prudence of De Ruyter refused to engage even on equal terms ; 
and the duke returned to Southwold Bay, on the coast of Suffolk, 
that his ships might take in their full complement of men and 
provisions. In a few days, De Ruyter learned, from the captain 
of a collier, the situation and employment of the English fleet. 
He suddenly resolved to become the aggressor, and sailed with 
his whole force for Southwold Bay, where James engaged him. 
Seldom has any battle in our naval annals been more stubbornly 
contested. The English had to struggle with a bold and expe- 
rienced enemy, and against the most fearful disparity of force. 
The duke's ship, the Prince, of one hundred guns, lost above one- 
third of her men, and lay a motionless wreck on the water. 
Having ordered her to be towed out of danger, he passed through 
the window of the cabin into his shallop, rowed through the 
enemy's fire, and unfurled the royal standard in the St. Michael 
of ninety guns. It was soon reported to the duke that the St. 
Michael could with difficulty be kept afloat, on account of an in- 
jury which she had received in her hull; and he transported his 
flag to the London. De Ruyter was the first to shrink from the 
conflict. He sailed away, and the duke, with five-and-twenty 
ships, remained to the windward of the enemy, and thus termi- 
nated this obstinate engagement. The war soon began to languish, 
for De Ruyter had the prudence to shun a second engagement. 

In 1673, the house of commons resolved that every individual 
refusing to take the oath of allegiance and supremacy, and to re- 
ceive the sacrament according to the rites of the 
The Test Act. Church of England, should be incapable of public 



1C74A.D.] CHARLES THE SECOND. 573 



employment, military or civil; and a bill was passed into a 
statute known as the " Test Act," requiring, not only that the 
oaths should be taken, and the sacrament received, but also that 
a declaration against transubstantiation should be subscribed by 
all persons holding office, under the penalty of a fine of five hun- 
dred pounds, and of being disabled to sue in any court of law or 
equity, to be guardian to any child, or executor to any person, 
or to take any legacy or deed of gift, or to bear any public office. 
James refused to take the test, and soon afterward voluntarily 
resigned all the offices which he held under the crown. By the 
retirement of James, the command of the combined fleet, amount- 
ing to ninety sail of the line, had devolved on Prince Rupert. 
With so formidable a force, it was expected that he would sweep 
the Dutch navy from the face of the ocean ; but he performed 
nothing worthy of his reputation; and, though he fought three 
actions with De Ruyter, neither received nor inflicted considerable 
injury. 

The religious antipathies of the people had been excited by the 
conversion of James to the Catholic faith, and they were now 
blown into a flame by the intelligence that he had recently mar- 
ried, by proxy, the sister to the reigning duke of Modena, Maria 
d'Este, a Catholic princess of the age of fifteen. The princess 
soon arrived in England. 

Ever since the fall of Clarendon, the violent opponents of that 
nobleman feared the resentment of the duke of York, and con- 
sidered their own safety to be intimately connected with his ex- 
clusion from the throne. The earl of Carlisle moved, in 1674, 
that, to a prince of the blood, the penalty for Attempts to ex- 
marrying a Catholic should be the forfeiture of his York, 
right to the succession. Though this motion was lost, the duke 
of York had but a cheerless prospect before him. The opponents 
of James fixed their eyes on the young duke of Monmouth; nor 
was it unreasonable in them to hope that the king's partiality for 
his son would serve to reconcile him to the exclusion of his 
brother. A second, and in many respects a more formidable, 
rival was William, prince of Orange, the next in succession to 
the crown after the duke of York and his children. William 
was a Protestant; his exertions in defence of his country had ex- 
alted him in the eyes of all who dreaded the ambitious designs 



574 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1G74. 



of the French monarch; and some of the popular leaders in 
England had not hesitated to pledge themselves to his service 
and to advocate his interests, even at a time when he was at war 
with their sovereign. 

About this time it was agreed that the king of France should 
pay a yearly pension to the king of England; that the two 
sovereigns should bind themselves to enter into no engagements 
with other powers unless by mutual consent; and that each should 
lend effectual aid to the other in the event of rebellion within 
their respective kingdoms. 

During the long prorogation, and with the aid of his foreign 
pension, Charles enjoyed a seasonable relief from the cares and 
agitation in which he had lived for several years. He retired to 
Windsor, where he spent his time in the superintendence of im- 
provements, the amusement of fishing, and the company and con- 
versation of his friends. 

In the year 1674, William, prince of Orange, had very unce- 
remoniously refused the hand of the princess Mary, daughter of 
James, duke of York ; but now he condescended to solicit that 
union which he had previously rejected. He was accepted, and 
the marriage gave satisfaction. 

The reader must now divert his attention to one of the most 
extraordinary occurrences in our domestic history, the imposture 
generally known by the appellation of Oates's plot. 
Its author and hero was Titus Oates, alias Am- 
brose, the son of a ribbon-weaver, who, exchanging the loom for 
the Bible, distinguished himself as an Anabaptist minister during 
the government of Cromwell, and became an orthodox clergyman 
on the restoration of the ancient dynasty. Titus was sent to 
Cambridge, took orders, and officiated as curate in several parishes, 
and as chaplain on board of a man-of-war ; but all these situations 
he successively forfeited in consequence of his misconduct. 

Several Jesuits, in the month of April, 1678, held a private 
meeting in London. On this foundation, however, frail and 
slender as it was, Oates contrived to build a huge superstructure 
renewed efforts °f malice and fiction. The meeting was in 
to exclude James. re ality the usual triennial congregation of the 
order. Oates said that it was a consultation on the most eligible 
means of assassinating the king, and of subverting by force the 



1680 A. D.] CHARLES THE SECOND. 575 

Protestant religion. A bill was soon introduced in the house of 
commons for the exclusion of all Catholics, and, consequently, of 
the duke of York, both from parliament and from the presence 
of the sovereign. The bill passed without opposition, when oppo- 
sition could lead only to the forfeiture of character, perhaps of 
liberty and life. Encouraged by the state of the public mind, 
the popular leaders determined to throw off the mask, and to 
commence a direct attack on the duke of York. An address to 
exclude him from the presence and the councils of the sovereign 
was moved by Lord Shaftesbury in the house of lords, by Lord 
Russell in the house of commons. Charles openly expressed his 
indignation at this motion, but he advised his brother to submit 
to a compromise. It cost James a violent struggle before he 
would yield j but he deemed it a duty to obey the will of the 
sovereign, and announced from his seat in the house of lords that 
he was no longer a member of the council. 

We will not detain the reader with a narrative of the partial 
trials and judicial murders of the unfortunate men whose names 
had been inserted by Oates in his pretended discoveries. So vio- 
lent was the excitement, so general the delusion created by the 
perjuries of the informer, that the voice of reason and the claims 
of justice were equally disregarded. Several innocent persons 
were executed on the perjured evidence of Oates and an accom- 
plice named Bedloe. 

A measure, called the bill of exclusion, was at ^ of exclusion 
this time brought into parliament, which provided 
that James should be incapable of inheriting the crowns of Eng- 
land and Ireland ; that, on the demise of Charles without heirs 
of his body, his dominions should devolve, as if the duke of York 
were also dead, on that person next in succession who had always 
professed the Protestant religion established by law. While the 
debates on the bill were progressing, Charles prorogued parlia- 
ment. It was at this time that the Habeas Corpus Act was 
passed. 

In England, the executions on account of the pretended 
« Popish plot" continued. The bill for the exclusion of James 
from the succession was carried in the commons, but was defeated 
in the lords. The commons selected the Lord Exccution o{ 
Stafford for trial, who, on account of his age and Lord Stafford. 



576 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1680 

infirmities, appeared the least able to make a powerful defence. 
On the 13th of November, 1680, this venerable nobleman was 
placed at the bar to plead against the informers, and politicians, 
and zealots who thirsted for his blood. After a trial of several 
days, he was found guilty of treason, on perjured evidence, and 
sentenced to death. He suffered with fortitude on the 20th De- 
cember, 1680. 

In 1681, the succession bill was revived, but Charles suddenly 
dissolved the parliament. In the same year was executed Oliver 
Death of Oliver Piunket, the Catholic archbishop of Armagh, a 
piunket. pi-elate whose loyalty had been attested by four 

successive chief governors of Ireland. He had been thrown into 
prison on the usual charge of having received orders in the Church 
of Rome, when the promise of reward to informers induced some 
of the king's witnesses, as they were called, to select him for a 
principal conspirator in a pretended Irish plot. But they dared 
not face the man whom they had accused in their own country : 
at the trial it appeared that they were gone to England, and 
Piunket, instead of obtaining his discharge, was compelled to 
follow them. At this arraignment the chief-justice granted him 
a respite of five weeks to procure evidence from Ireland ; but his 
messenger was driven back by contrary winds ; and his means of 
defence did not reach the English coast till the third day after his 
condemnation. Piunket suffered, and was the last of the victims 
sacrificed to the imposture of the " popish plot." 

In May, 1682, James, who had for some time retired from Eng- 
land, returned and settled once more in the palace of St. James. 
The Rye-iiouse By several discontented persons frequent consulta- 
plot - tions were held in 1683, and measures were pro- 

posed by the more violent, not only for an insurrection in the city, 
but also for the assassination of the royal brothers at Whitehall, 
or in the theatre, or at a farm belonging to one of the conspirators, 
called the Rye House, and situate in a lonely spot near Hoddesdon, 
on the road by which the king usually returned from Newmarket 
to London. By means of Lord Howard an indirect communica- 
tion had all along been maintained between these men and the 
more discontented among the Whig leaders, the duke of Monmouth, 
the earl of Essex, the Lord Grey, Lord William Russell, Algernon 
Sydney, and Mr. Hampden, who, though they refused to hear 



1685 A. D.] CHARLES THE SECOND. 577 



any mention of assassination, were willing to employ the services 
of those among whom the notion originated. Information was 
given to the government, and Russell, Sydney, and others were 
arrested and committed to the Tower. The trial of Lord William 
Russell excited general interest, as it promised a solution of the 
important question, whether the Whig leaders were implicated or 
not in the plans of the minor conspirators. Lord Russell made 
hut a feehle defence. He acknowledged that he was present at 
some of the meetings, hut it was hy mere accident. The jury re- 
turned a verdict of guilty. Lord Russell himself was drawn, by 
the earnest entreaties of his wife, to petition the king, and to 
solicit the intercession of the duke of York, but without success. 
He met his fate with resignation and fortitude. He said little on 
the scaffold, but delivered a written speech to the sheriffs. In it 
he stated that he died a Protestant; that, in the prosecution of the 
popish plot, he had acted on the conviction of its reality, which 
conviction he still retained, and that he knew nothing of any 
practices to suborn and instruct the witnesses; that he had taken 
an active part in favor of the bill for excluding James, because 
he thought that measure necessary to free the nation from the 
" pollution of popery." Posterity has long ago absolved Russell 
from seeking to dip his hands in the blood of the king. But there 
were other charges against him. He was a party to the design 
of compelling the king, by force, to banish and disinherit James, 
the presumptive heir to the crown, and concurred in the design of 
raising an insurrection in Scotland to co-operate with another in 
England for the same purpose. The succeeding trial, that of 
Algernon Sydney, soon took place before Sir George Jeffreys, of 
infamous memory. Sydney was found guilty. 

Monmouth was pardoned. To his father he protested on his 
knees that he was innocent of any design against the royal life, but 
confessed and condemned the part which he had The execut i on f 
taken in the disloyal plans and practices of the con- Sydney. 
spirators; then turning to his uncle, he acknowledged himself guilty 
of many offences against him, solicited forgiveness, and promised 
that, if James should survive the king, he himself would be the 
first man to draw the sword in defence of his right whenever oc- 
casion might require. Sydney was soon led to the scaffold. Never 

did man face the terrors of death with less parade or greater indif • 

49 



578 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1685 



ference. He suffered no friend to accompany him; he refused the 
aid of the minister of religion : and, when he was asked if he did 
not intend to address the spectators, he replied, that "he had 
made his peace with God, and had nothing to say to man." Hav- 
ing made himself ready, he placed his neck upon the block, and 
bade the executioner perform his duty. 

On Monday, the 2d of February, 1G85, after a feverish and 
restless night, Charles rose at an early hour. To his attendants 

Last illness and ne appeared drowsy and absent ; his gait was un- 
death ofcharies. steady, his speech embarrassed. Remedies were ap- 
plied, and the royal patient gradually recovered his consciousness 
and the use of his speech. It soon, however, became evident that 
his dissolution was rapidly approaching. The duke of York, 
though aware of his brother's secret preference of the Catholic 
worship, had hitherto been silent on the subject of religion. By 
law, the reconciliation of any individual to the Church of Rome was 
an act of high-treason ; no priest could be privately introduced 
to the king for that purpose, while the room was crowded with 
lords, bishops, and medical attendants ; and to remove them 
without a plausible reason could only provoke suspicion and 
inquiry. Having motioned to the company to withdraw to the 
other end of the apartment, James knelt down by the pillow 
of the sick monarch, and asked if he might send for a Catholic 
priest. "For God's sake do!" was the king's reply; "but," 
he immediately added, " will it not expose you to danger ?" 
James replied that he cared not for the danger; and, having 
despatched a trusty messenger in search of a priest, stated aloud 
that the king required all present to quit the apartment, with 
the exception of the earl of Bath, lord of the bed-chamber, and 

He dies in the the earl of Feversham, captain of the guard. In 
Catholic faith. a g ] 10r t time, Hudleston, a priest, was led through 
the queen's apartments to a private door on the right hand of 
the bed ; and James introduced him to the king with these 
words : " Sir, this worthy man comes to save your soul." The 
priest threw himself on his knees, and offered to the dying mo- 
narch the aid of his ministry. To his inquiries Charles replied 
that it was his desire to die in the communion of the Roman 
Catholic church ; that he heartly repented of all his sins, and, 
in particular, of having deferred his reconciliation to that hour; 



1685 A. D.] CHARLES THE SECOND. 579 

that he hoped for salvation from the merits of Christ his Saviour; 
that he pardoned all his enemies, asked pardon of all whom he 
had offended, and was in peace with all men ; and that he pur- 
posed, if God should spare him, to prove the sincerity of his 
repentance by a thorough amendment of life. Hudleston, having 
received his confession, anointed him, administered the eucharist, 
and withdrew. During that night the king suffered at times 
the most distressing pain ; but', in the intervals between the pa- 
roxysms, his mind was calm and collected, and he spoke of his 
approaching death with composure and resignation. About two 
o'clock, looking on the duke, who was kneeling at the bedside, 
and kissing his hand, he called him the best of friends and 
brothers, desired him to forgive the harsh treatment which he 
had sometimes received, and prayed that God might grant him 
a long and prosperous reign. About six, on the following morn- 
ing, he complained of pain in the side, accompained with a dif- 
ficulty of breathing : to remove which eight ounces of blood 
were taken from his arm. Three hours later he lost the faculty 
of speech, and about noon, 6th February, 1685, calmly expired. 
In person, Charles was tall and well-proportioned, with a 
swarthv complexion. He was kind, familiar, 

<f l iiii H 13 character. 

communicative. Parade and ceremony he held 
in aversion : to act the part of a king was to him a tiresome 
and odious task ; and he would gladly burst from the trammels 
of official greatness, that he might escape to the ease and 
comfort of a colloquial familiarity. With talents, said to be 
of the highest order, he joined an insuperable antipathy to 
application; whence it happened that, to the scanty stock of 
knowledge which he had acquired in his youthful days, he 
made but few additions' in a more advanced age. Impatient 
of trouble, and fearful of opposition, he looked upon the practice 
of dissimulation as the grand secret in the art of reigning. His 
example exercised the most pernicious influence on the morals of 
the higher classes of his subjects. His court became a school of 
vice, in which the restraints of decency were laughed to scorn. 
Of his pecuniary transactions with the king of France, no English- 
man can think without feelings of shame, or speak but in the 
language of reprobation. With respect to his religion, we may 
perhaps come to the conclusion that, for the greater part of his 



580 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1685. 



reign, he looked on religion as a political question, and cared little 
to which of the two churches he might belong. In conclusion, it 
may he proper to remark that during his .reign the arts improved, 
trade met with encouragement, and the wealth and comforts of 
the people increased. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

lames tire Swffttfo. 

The King succeeds to the Throne — His intentions regarding Religion — The Re- 
bellion of the Duke of Monmouth — The Revolt suppressed — Jeffreys com- 
missioned to try the Prisoners — James determines to grant liberty of con- 
science — The King's contest with the Rishops — The Prince of Orange lands 
in England— The King deserted even by his Children — He escapes to France 
— Meetiag of the Convention — The Rill of Rights — William and Mary pro- 
claimed.— From A. D. 1635 to 1689. 

Never did prince succeed more tranquilly to a throne than 
James II. to that of England. The first question which claimed 
the attention of the new monarch was the state of the revenue. 
A parliament was summoned to meet on the 19th of May, and a 
royal proclamation issued, which, alleging state necessity as the 
cause, ordered the usual duties to be levied on merchandise, till 
parliament should have settled the revenue of the crown. 

Of James's attachment to the Church of Rome, after the sacri- 
fices which he had made, every man must have been convinced; 
The king's views an( ^ a question now with him was whether, after his 
respecting religion, accession to the throne, he ought to be content 
with the clandestine exercise of the Catholic worship, or openly 
to attend a form of religious service still prohibited by law. The 
latter accorded better with that hatred of dissimulation which 
was believed to mark his character, and as early as the second 
Sunday after his brother's death, in opposition to the advice of 
the council, he ordered the folding-doors of the queen's chapel 
to be thrown open, that his presence at mass might be noticed by 
the attendants in the antechamber. It has been a subject of 



1685 A. D.] JAMES THE SECOND. 581 



dispute, whether, at this period of his reign, the king had formed 
an intention of restoring the Catholic religion to its ancient 
ascendency, by making it the religion of the state, or merely 
sought to relieve its professors from the galling restrictions 
and barbarous punishments to which they were still subject by 
law. It seems evident, from the perusal of his confidential let- 
ters, that he limited his views to the accomplishment of two ob- 
jects, which he called liberty of conscience and freedom of wor- 
ship, and which, had he been successful, would have benefited 
not the Catholics only, but every class of religionists. 

On the feast of St. George, 1685, the king and queen were 
crowned by the hands of archbishop Sancroft, in Westminster 
Abbey. During the shaft interval between the coronation and 
the opening of parliament, the public mind was . Trial and pun 
occupied with the trial and punishment of Titus dates. 
Oates, who had distinguished himself in the last reign, as arch- 
informer with respect to the pretended popish plot. His guilt 
was proved beyond the possibility of doubt, and he was condemn- 
ed to pay a fine of 2000 marks, to be stripped of his canonical 
habit, to be twice publicly whipped, and to stand every year of 
his life five times in the pillory. The parliament soon met, and 
James, when the necessary forms had been complied with, ad- 
dressed the two houses in a short speech which he read leisurely 
and distinctly from the throne. He found the parliament willing 
to accede to his demands. 

The duke of Monmouth landed on the coast of Dorsetshire, on 
the 15th June, 1685, in order to assert his right to the throne as 
son of Charles II., by a queen whom he asserted to Duke of Mon 

, , ip-ii .i tt • t j i mouth asserts bis 

have been lawfully married. He was immediately right to the throne, 
attainted, and a price set upon his head. A proclamation had 
already ordered the kingdom to be put in a posture of defence 
against invasion. The earl of Argyle, who was appointed to a 
high command in the invading force, had sailed from Holland to 
Scotland, landed in Lorn and afterward in Cantire, and published 
in both places a declaration against James, which he brought with 
him from Holland. It would exhaust the patience of the reader 
to detail the subsequent particulars of this ill-concerted and ill- 
fated expedition. Each day was marked by new disappointments, 

and new causes of dissension between the earl and his associates. 

49* 



582 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



[A. D. 1685 



Argyle was soon defeated and taken prisoner. He was executed 
in Edinburgh, on the 80th June, 1685. 

Monmouth had engaged to follow Argyle in the course of six 
days ; yet three weeks elapsed before he left Amsterdam. With 

Monmouth lands an inconsiderable force the unfortunate adventurer 
snmw^^tKie tf undertook to win the crowns of three kingdoms; 
James ii. j^ ^jg h p es were buoyed up with the expectation 

that multitudes would hasten to his standard. He stole unobserved 
down the Channel, and on the 11th of June appeared in front of 
the small port of Lyme in Dorsetshire. The moment he landed 
on the beach, he offered on his knees a fervent prayer for the 
success of the enterprise, and then, drawing his sword, marched 
at the head of his followers, into the^town. The mayor and 
principal inhabitants had fled; but the lower classes were sum- 
moned round a blue flag planted in the market-place, where they 
listened to Monmouth's declaration against James. When Mon- 
mouth published this declaration, which was most intemperate in 
its language, and slanderous in its assertions, he must have been 
intoxicated with the assurance of success, or have made up his 
mind to conquer or die. From the king it is evident that, after 
such wanton and bitter provocation, he could expect no mercy. 
Neither was it calculated to make a favorable impression on the 
public mind. Not a nobleman, not a gentleman of interest or 
opulence openly ventured to declare in his favor. But the reli- 
gious and political prejudices of the populace were excited : they 
crowded to offer their services ; arms were distributed, companies 
formed, and officers appointed; and, on the fourth day, Monmouth 
marched from Lyme at the head of four regiments, amounting in 
all to more than three thousand men. From Lyme he hastened 
to Taunton, a rich and populous town, where he was received with 
loud acclamations, as the saviour of the country. He soon took 
on himself by solemn proclamation the title of King James II., 
and set a price on the head of the " usurper of the crown, James 
duke of York." 

The king, though cheered by the votes of parliament, was not 
without strong grounds of disquietude. He dared not trust the 

Monmouth is decision of the contest to the militia of the counties, 

defeated and taken , _ - -. . - „ , ,.. 

prisoner. whose Meaty was uoubttul as their inexperience was 

certain; and the regular force in the whole kingdom did not exceed 



1685 A. D.] JAMES THE SECOND. 583 

five thousand men. Unable for the moment to arrest the pro- 
gress of his opponent, he gave the command to Lord Feversham, 
with instructions to secure Bristol. Monmouth reaped little 
benefit from the assumption of royalty. He wandered from place 
to place without any apparent object. No person of quality 
offered his services, and his friends in the capital and the country 
remained quiet. When he became acquainted with the fate of 
Argyle, his last hope was gone. He was soon defeated in the 
battle of Sedgemoor, and, having fled, was in a short time taken 
and conducted to London. By the act of attainder he was 
already condemned, and could have no hope of life but from the 
pity or generosity of the king. But what claim had he on that 
prince ? Twenty months had not elapsed since he had obtained 
the pardon of James on a solemn promise to be the first to draw 
the sword in defence of his rights ; and yet he had ungratefully 
levied an army against him, and set the crown on his own head, 
and publicly declared the king a murderer, a tyrant, and an 
usurper; and had announced to the world that, on account of his 
crimes, he would pursue him to the death. Still, in the face of 
this provocation, the love of life taught him not to despair, and 
he wrote to James a supplicatory letter, expressive of the deepest 
remorse for his ingratitude and rebellion, attributing the blame 
to the counsels of " false and horrid" companions; and soliciting 
the favor of a personal interview. The king received him in the 
presence of Sunderland and Middleton, the two secretaries of 
state. He threw himself on his knees, and implored forgiveness 
in the most passionate terms; but James replied, that, by usurp- 
ing the title of king, he had rendered himself incapable of pardon. 
The interview with Monmouth has subjected the king to much 
severe, but perhaps unmerited, censure. He has been accused 
of want of feeling, in consenting to behold a nephew on his 
knees with a predetermination not to grant him Monmouth is 
mercy, and of cruelty in adding to the sufferings ex ecuted. 
of his victim by exciting hopes which he was resolved to disap- 
point. But his predetermination to refuse the prayer of the 
criminal has been assumed without any proof ; and the interview 
itself was not of the king's seeking ; it was reluctantly granted 
by him as a favor to the prayers of Monmouth, (who, it is to be 
remembered, was not acknowledged by James as his nephew,) 



584 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1686. 

and of Monmouth's intercessors, and on the representation that 
the disclosures to be made by the prisoner would, on account of 
their superior importance, cancel his crimes of treason and usurpa- 
tion. Monmouth was beheaded in two days after the interview 
with the king. 

A commission was soon aferward appointed, consisting of Judge 

Jeffreys, who three months before had been raised to the peerage, 

Jeffreys commis- Montague, the chief baron, and three puisne iudees, 

Bioned to try the i i • , r» i i i i • , , , 

rebels. to proceed to the trial or those who had aided Mon- 

mouth. On account of the danger to which they might be exposed 
in the revolted counties, they were accompanied by a strong mili- 
tary escort, the command of which, with the temporary rank of 
lieutenant-general, was intrusted to Jeffreys ; and it was probably 
this singular union of the military with the judicial character, 
that induced the wits to give to his progress during the circuit 
the nickname of " Jeffrey's campaign/' A multitude of prisoners 
awaited their doom from the mouth of their stern and inexorable 
judge. That they had forfeited their lives by the laws of their 
country cannot be denied; and that mail) among them were in- 
corrigible enthusiasts, who publicly avowed the righteousness of 
their cause, and their readiness to renew the attempt, is also true; 
yet the demands of justice might surely have been satisfied, and 
a salutary example have been made, without that deluge of blood 
so unsparingly poured out by Jeffreys and his associates. 

As the time for the meeting of parliament approached, the 
minds of men became daily more and more agitated. During 
The meeting and the rebellion, the levy of forces and the appoint- 
liament. mcnt of Catholic officers created no great alarm — 

the urgency of the case supplied a sufficient justification — but 
months had now passed since the battle of Sedgemoor, and the 
army was still kept up to its former complement. By a strange fa- 
tality it chanced that, at this moment of suspense and disquietude, 
the king of France revoked the edict of Nantes, and numbers of 
French Protestants sought an asylum in England from the per- 
secution which they suffered in their own country. It was to no 
purpose that James labored to allay the ferment ; that he openly 
declared his disapprobation of every species of religious perse- 
cution, and that he promoted with all his influence the measures 
devised for the relief of the refugees. On the appointed day, 



1687 A. D.] JAMES THE SECOND. 585 

the king opened the session with a speech from the throne. He 
said, that he had deemed it necessary for the safety of the nation 
and the stability of the government to augment the regular army, 
and he now called on parliament to provide the means of defray- 
ing the additional expense, and also to sanction the employment 
of Catholic officers. The opposition being very powerful, James 
suddenly prorogued the parliament, with the secret resolution of 
accomplishing, by his dispensing power, that object which he was 
not permitted to effect constitutionally with the consent of the 
lords and commons. 

Several Protestant clergymen at this time adopted the Catholic 
creed, of whom were Obadiah Walker, master of University Col- 
lege, Oxford, and Boyce, Dean, and Bernard, fellows of different 
colleges. To these James granted dispensations, by which they 
were empowered to enjoy the benefits of their respective situations 
without taking the oaths, or attending the established worship. 
In defence of his conduct he maintained that it was incumbent 
on him to see that no man should suffer because he had the cou- 
rage to follow the dictates of his conscience. Though the ancient 
warship was still proscribed by law under the penalties of impri- 
sonment, forfeiture, and death, the Catholics, for the last four years, 
had been permitted to practise it in private houses without mo- 
lestation. But James was not satisfied with mere connivance : he 
deemed it both his duty and his interest to give protection to the 
public exercise of his religion. He had prepared an effectual 
check to the ebullition of popular resentment by the presence of 
an army of about sixteen thousand men, consisting of twelve 
battalions of infantry and thirty-five squadrons of cavalry, en- 
camped on Hounslow Heath. It was remarked that several of 
the officers were Catholics ; the piety of all good Protestants was 
scandalized by the public celebration of mass in the tent of Lord 
Dunbarton, the second in command. 

James soon addressed the privy council. During the four last 
reigns, he said, law upon law had been passed to t< ^^ t a ^^ u ^ 
enforce uniformity of doctrine. But experience conscience. 
had shown the uselessness of such enactments. Under them 
dissent had increased ; they had led, in his father's time, to the 
destruction of the government in church and state ; they had 
perpetuated to the present hour division in the nation, and all 

2M 



586 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1687. 



those evils which necessarily grew out of civil dissension. It was 
time to put an end to such a state of things. Conscience could 
not be forced ; persecution was incompatible with the doctrines 
of Christianity ; and it was, therefore, his resolve to grant religious 
liberty to all his subjects. 

Before we proceed to the fourth and last year of this inauspi- 
cious reign, it will be proper to call the attention of the reader 
to the numerous causes of irritation and estrangement which pre- 
viously existed between the king and his nephew and son-in-law, 
the prince of Orange. William's advocacy of the bill of exclu- 
sion, and his reception of Monmouth during the life of Charles, 
were offences not easily forgotten. James persuaded himself that 
William of Orange, the husband of his daughter Mary, might be 
induced to approve of the general abolition of the penal laws on 
matters of religion now, and to pledge his word that he would 
maintain that abolition even after he should succeed to the throne. 
For this purpose, James despatched to Holland Sir William Penn, 
the celebrated Quaker, that he might read lectures on toleration, 
to the prince and princess. The prosecution and trial of the 
imprisoDment of seven bishops soon followed. A year had elapsed 
the prelates. since his proclamation of liberty of conscience. 

James now ordered it to be republished, and appended to it an 
additional declaration, stating his unalterable resolution of se- 
curing to the subjects of the English crown " freedom of con- 
science for ever," and of rendering thenceforth merit and not 
oaths the qualification for office. Several prelates prayed to be 
excused from reading the declaration, not because they were 
wanting in duty to the sovereign, but because it was founded on 
the dispensing power, which had often been declared illegal in 
parliament ; whereupon James ordered them into custody. While 
the public attention was absorbed by the proceedings against the 
bishops, the queen was unexpectedly taken in labor ; and, in the 
course of an hour, the king was blessed with what he so ardently 
wished for, the birth of a son, the apparent heir to his crown. 
The disappointment and vexation of his opponents were marked. 
But they quickly rallied ; they had prepared the people to expect 
a supposititious birth, and they maintained that their predictions 
had been verified. 

On the appointed day the seven prelates were brought from the 



1688 A. D.] JAMES THE SECOND. 587 



Tower, accompanied by several peers and gentle- Trial and acquit- 
men ; on their approach to Westminster Hall the tal of tne h ^ h °vs- 
crowd divided ; and, as they passed through the lane of spectators, 
the bystanders begged their blessing, and kissed their hands and 
garments. After much time had been spent in arguing the ob- 
jections taken by their counsel, they pleaded not guilty, and were 
discharged on their own recognizances, the archbishop in two 
hundred pounds, the bishops in one hundred pounds each, to 
appear again for trial on that day fortnight. The expectation of 
the trial drew multitudes from the country to the metropolis. 
Their advocates entered into the real merits of the case, and con- 
tended that the bishops had only exercised their right of peti- 
tioning for the redress of grievances as British subjects, and their 
duty of supporting the Act of Uniformity as its legal guardians. 
The judges charged the jury separately. The jury (for it cannot 
be objected to James that he ever made an attempt to pervert the 
course of justice) had been fairly chosen. Differing in opinion 
among themselves, they left the court, and spent the night in loud 
and violent debate. In the morning they returned, and pro- 
nounced a verdict of not guilty. It was received with deafening 
shouts of applause; the enthusiasm communicated itself to the 
crowd without the hall; it was rapidly propagated to the ex- 
tremities of the metropolis; thence it reached the neighboring 
hamlets, and at length penetrated to the camp of Hounslow Heath, 
where it is said that the king himself, who chanced to be dining 
with the general, Lord Feversham, was surprised and alarmed at 
the loud acclamations of the soldiers. 

The prince of Orange had never lost sight of the great object 
of his ambition. A pamphlet was published in Holland, May 10th, 
1688, to prove that James was a usurper, because, being a Ca- 
tholic, he could not inherit the English throne; and that the 
princess of Orange was the rightful sovereign, and ought to have 
succeeded on the death of her uncle, Charles II. James saw the 
danger with threatened him, in all its magnitude and proximity. 
The impolicy of his past misrule now flashed on his mind ; he 
hastened to repair his former errors, and hoped by retracing his 
steps to recover the confidence of his subjects. At the same 
time he made every exertion to augment his naval and mi- 
' litary force. 



588 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1688. 

William had originally fixed on March, 1688, for the sailing 
of the expedition, hut he was much delayed. On the afternoon 
'William sails but of the 19th of October, 1688, he sailed from Hel- 
a storm. voetsluys, the men-of-war in three divisions form- 

ing a line out at sea, and the transports taking their allotted 
stations between that line and the shore. It blew a steady breeze 
from the south-west ; scarcely a cloud obscured the heavens, and, 
as the fleet passed by Scheveling toward the north, the whole 
population of the Hague rushed to the shore, to view the proud 
and animating spectacle. Little did William anticipate the con- 
trast exhibited on the following day. It was his intention to 
proceed to a certain distance, and then alter his course for the 
coast of Yorkshire, where he was expected by the earl of Danby ; 
but, about ten in the evening, the wind suddenly changed to the 
west, and, by midnight, the storm had dispersed the fleet in every 
direction. The next morning the prince regained his former 
anchorage with about sixty sail : of the others some rode out the 
tempest, while the rest sought shelter in the different roads and 
havens. When, however, the extent of the loss could be ascer- 
tained, it proved much less than had been expected, for only a 
few ships had foundered. 

William sailed again from Holland, on 1st November, 1688, 
in pursuit of the English crown. By friends and foes it was be- 
lie sails again, lieved that he intended to land on the coast of 
vonshire. Yorkshire: but, having steered for twelve hours 

to the north, he changed his course ; and, availing himself of a 
favorable wind, passed, without opposition, the royal fleet in the 
Downs, and in two days reached Torbay, in Devonshire, his real 
destination. To oppose the prince by land, James resolved to 
collect his army in the neighborhood of Salisbury. The prince, 
though he had been permitted to land without opposition, did 
not meet with the reception which he had been taught to expect. 
At his approach to Exeter, the bishop and dean fled from the 
city; the clergy and corporation remained passive spectators of 
his entry; and, though the populace applauded, no addresses of 
congratulation, nor public demonstrations of joy, were made by 
the respectable citizens. William was disappointed; he com- 
plained that he had been deceived and betrayed; he threatened 
to re-embark, and to leave his recreant associates to the ven- 



1688 A. D.] JAMES THE SECOND. 589 



geance of their sovereign. Still, however, his hopes were kept 
alive by the successive arrival of a few stragglers from a dis- 
tance : in a short time they were raised almost to assurance of 
success by the perfidy of Lord Cornbury, son of the earl of Cla- 
rendon, who went over to him with part of the army. 

The king's advisers, in despair of success, conjured him to 
seek an accommodation with his nephew, and to prevent, at any 
price, the total subversion of his throne. But James refused to 
see what was evident to all besides himself, and still believed in 
the loyalty of the army. The princess Anne pri- James is de- 
vately left London. On the receipt of the intelli- dren. 
gence James burst into tears, and exclaimed, " God help me ! 
my very children have forsaken me I" The queen had hitherto 
refused to separate her lot from that of her husband; but when 
he had made up his mind to leave the kingdom, and that he so- 
lemnly promised to follow her within twenty-four hours, she con- 
sented to accompany her child. The time for their escape was 
fixed for two after midnight. A yacht, with Lord and Lady 
Powis and three Irish officers on board, was ready to receive 
them ; and thence they pursued their course in safety to Calais. 
The king soon fled from London, and the news of his flight cre- 
ated surprise and consternation. About thirty spiritual and tem- 
poral peers joined the lord mayor and aldermen at the Guildhall, 
and, after some consultation, forming themselves into a separate 
council, assumed for a time the supreme authority. 

The lord chancellor Jeffreys was discovered at Wapping in a 
strange disguise. A party of the trained bands rescued him 
from the fury of the mob; but they still pursued him with whips 
and halters, and, as the lord mayor was too much alarmed to take 
his examination, he was, at his own desire, conducted under an 
escort of two regiments to the Tower. The lords in council soon 
afterward sent a warrant for his detention, and, in the course of a 
few months, he died in prison. 

James returned to London for a time, but again retired and 
fled to Ambleteuse, on the coast of France, which he reached on 
the 25th of December. Thence he hastened to join his wife 
and child at the castle of St. Germain's, where he was received 
by Louis with expressions of sympathy and proofs of munifi- 
cence which did honor to that monarch. 

50 



590 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1G88. 



The lords and commons continued to sit at Westminster, and 
by them an address was voted to the prince of Orange, begging 
An address to him to assume and exercise the government of the 
Orange. rmC realm till the meeting of a national convention on 

the 22d of January, 1689; and, for the election of the members 
of that convention, to issue writs similar to those which the king 
was accustomed to issue for the election of members of parlia- 
ment; with this request the prince complied. 

Hitherto no mention has been made of Scotland. At the an- 
nouncement of the intended invasion, the council of state pro- 
claimed, in an address to James, their determination to peril then- 
lives and fortunes in support of the throne of their rightful sov- 
ereign, but they soon abandoned his cause. Many of the lead- 
ing men in Scotland proceeded to the English metropolis, eager 
to pay their court to the prince of Orange, and to secure the 
the good-will of their future sovereign. By his direction they 
assembled in a room at Whitehall, and, after three days' delibera- 
tion, agreed to follow, in substance though not in form, the prece- 
dent which had been set by the two English houses. 

The English convention met on the appointed day, January 

22d. The lower house was composed chiefly of the men who had 

Meetin of the distinguished themselves in their respective coun- 

convention. wii- ^ies bv their opposition to the obnoxious measures 

Ham and Mary J ■, 1 A i i*' i 1 

proclaimed. of Jarnes : from the upper the Catholic lords were 

excluded, not in virtue of any law — for the law knew nothing of 
conventions — but because care had been taken to direct writs to 
none but Protestant peers. It was contended in the commons, 
that the voluntary withdrawal of James without any provision 
for the government of the realm during his absence, was equiva- 
lent in law to a demise of the crown ; by others, that it was, in 
fact, an abdication of the sovereignty, and it was resolved that the 
throne was vacant. In the lords a protracted and angry debate 
took place, and the friends of James showed that they still pos- 
sessed considerable influence. When the prince saw the crown 
sliding from his grasp, he deemed it advisable to break that 
silence which he had hitherto maintained, and complained of the 
time which had been wasted in useless debate — not (he said) that 
he was interested in the result — but because it detained him in- 
active in England, when the events passing on the continent im- 



1689 A. D.] JAMES THE SECOND. 591 



periously demanded his presence in Holland. He added, that if 
any persons intended to appoint him regent, they might spare 
themselves the trouble, for the regency was an office which he 
would never accept; adding, in allusion to a plan to make his wife 
the sole sovereign, that, while he was her husband, he would never 
be her subject. It was then agreed on, in compliance with the 
alleged wish of the princess, that, though William and Mary were 
to be equal in rank as king and queen, yet the exercise of the 
royal authority should be vested in William exclusively during 
his life. 

An instrument known as . the " Declaration of Right" was 
framed, which, after several conferences and amendments, ob- 
tained the approbation of both houses. It stated Declaration of 
that whereas the late king James II. had assumed ri s hts - 
and exercised a power of dispensing with and suspending laws 
without consent of parliament ; and had committed other arbi- 
trary acts which were set forth, it was necessary to declare such 
conduct subversive of right. It was next resolved that William 
and Mary, prince and princess of Orange, should be declared 
king and queen of England, France, and Ireland, and of the 
dominions thereunto belonging, to hold the same during their 
lives, and the life of the survivor of them j and that the sole and 
full exercise of the royal power should be only in, and executed 
by, the prince of Orange in both their names during their joint 
lives ; and that, after their decease, the said crown should descend 
to the heirs of the said princess, and, for default of such issue, to 
the princess Anne of Denmark and her heirs, and, in default of 
such issue, to the heirs of the prince of Orange. 

Hitherto, Mary had been suffered to remain unnoticed in Hol- 
land ; but she now received directions to come to England, and 
reached St. James's in the eighth week after the M ]lmds in 
expulsion of her father, by her husband's order, England, 
from the same palace. Her's was undoubtedly an extraordinary 
situation ; and curiosity was alive to watch her conduct, when 
she met the numerous and brilliant court which had assembled to 
greet her on her arrival. That conduct was not such as to do her 
honor. There was a levity in her manner which hurt the feel- 
ings of many even among her adherents ; an affectation of gayety, 
which suited not a daughter taking possession of the spoils of an 



592 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1689. 

exiled and affectionate father. The next morning, February 13, 
1689, the two houses proceeded in state to wait on the prince 
and princess at Whitehall. The lords were placed on the right 
hand, the commons on the left, at the lower end of the banquet- 
ing-house. William and Mary, entering at the opposite end, 
stood under the canopy of state ; and the speakers of the two 
houses, with the members following them, were conducted as far 
as the step by the usher of the black rod. The clerk then read 
the declaration of rights, and the marquess of Halifax made to 
the prince and princess the tender of the crowns of England, 
William and Ma- France, and Ireland, in the name of the conven- 
and queen. ° tion, " the representative of the nation." William 
replied for himself and his wife, that they thankfully accepted 
the offer. William and Mary were then proclaimed king and 
queen ; but three months elapsed before they acquired possession 
of the Scottish crown. In Scotland the estates declared the 
throne vacant, and drew up an enumeration of the grievances, 
fourteen in number, which they had suffered under the late 
monarch. They then passed the act of settlement, by which 
the crown was vested in William and Mary, and their heirs, in 
strict conformity with the English act. Immediately the pro- 
clamation of the two sovereigns took place with the usual solem- 
nities ; and a deputation was named to administer the coronation 
oath to the king and queen. The new sovereigns received the 
Scotch commissioners in the banqueting-house at Whitehall, and 
promised in the name of the eternal God to keep every clause of 
the oath, and from that moment became entitled to the full exer- 
cise of the regal authority in Scotland. 



Note. — Hitherto I have been guided completely by the text of Dr. Lingard. 
In the following pages I have endeavored, by a close examination of the 
works of those who have treated of the history of England from the period 
of the Revolution, to present a truthful narrative of events down to the pre- 
sent time. — James Burke. 



1G89A.D-] WILLIAM AND MARY. 593 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 



Mi Hi am ofr 3BW 



Insurrection in Scotland — James lands in Ireland — Battle of the Boyne— 
Treaty of Limerick — Death, and Character of the King. — From A. D. 1G89 
to 1702. 

The prince of Orange, having thus accomplished his ambi- 
tious designs, began soon to make every effort to consolidate his 
sway. In order to gratify the people of Scotland, the Presbyte- 
rian form of worship was established by law. In England, 
dissenters were freed from the necessity of taking the oath of su- 
premacy, except in language which was easily reconcilable with 
their views, and were permitted to meet in their respective 
places of worship. The doclarations against Catholic tenets re- 
mained, however, unchanged, and still continued necessary in 
order to enable a person to qualify for any official post. At this 
period some alterations took place in the details of constitutional 
arrangements, among which the most important was, the com- 
mencement of the system of appointing judges for life or good 
behaviour, instead of their being removable at the royal pleasure. 
The attainders of Lord Russell and Algernon Sydney were re- 
versed soon after the Revolution. 

In Scotland, an act had been passed distinctly affirming that 
James had forfeited the crown. That unfortunate monarch had, 
however, a strong party still among the Scotch, viscount Dun- 
especially in the Highlands. Viscount Dundee dee - 
(formerly Graham of Claverhouse) raised an insurrection in his 
favor, and rallied round his standard a considerable force. At a 
place called Killiecrankie, a memorable battle took place in May, 
1690, in which the adherents of James gained the advantage. 
As, however, Dundee was killed in the moment of victory, the 
Highlanders were not in a position to follow up what they had 

51* 



594 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1689. 



begun; and, in a short time, the clans were induced to yield, at 
all events, a nominal obedience to William and Mary. 

Although not in the exact order of time, perhaps it may be as 
well to relate here (as we are narrating the Scottish affairs of the 
period) the particulars of the atrocious act known in history as 

The massacre of the massacre of Glencoe. The facts were these : — ■ 
A proclamation was issued in 1691, commanding 
all the Highland chieftains to give in their submission before the 
last day of the year. One chief, Macdonald, of Glencoe, was ac- 
cidently prevented from observing the day. He started for In- 
verary, but was hindered by snow from reaching the presence of 
the government officer in time. He was a day or two late, but 
was allowed to take the required oaths, and returned home. His 
enemies alleged that he was disaffected, and William signed an 
order for the destruction of the whole clan. The soldiers who 
were ordered to carry out this ruthless mandate, came among 
the Macdonalds as pretended friends. They received the hospi- 
tality of the clan for a considerable time, and did not give any 
indication of their intentions till the morning of the 13th Febru- 
ary, 1G92, when they attacked their unsuspecting hosts in their 
sleep, and slew all that came in their way. Thirty-eight per- 
sons, including Macdonald and his wife, were basely murdered. 
Some escaped from the glen; but many of these perished after- 
ward by cold and hunger. No more atrocious act stains the page 
of history, and though it may be admitted that William did not 
intend that the massacre of the Macdonalds should have been ac- 
companied by such treachery, yet his memory has never been 
cleared of the charge of his having signed the exterminating 
edict, and of his not having in any manner punished, or even 
condemned the conduct of, those who so barbarously violated the 
sacred laws of hospitality. 

It was destined that Ireland should be the battle-ground in 
which William and James were to contend for the crown. The 
king of France furnished James with a fleet, with which he 
sailed to Ireland, where he arrived on the 22d March, 1689, and 
landed at Kinsale. The lord deputy Tyrconnell was a devoted 
adherent of James, and received him with an army of nearly 
40,000 men. All Ireland declared for James with the exception 
of Deny and Enniskillen. Derry was besieged, but the inhabit- 



1691 A. D.] WILLIAM AND MARY. 595 



ants held out till the city was relieved. In August, William 
sent an army of 16,000 men to Ireland, under Schomberg, who 
kept James in check for some time. In the summer of 1G90, 
William himself landed in Ireland with 36,000 men, and has- 
tened to take steps for giving battle to James. The hostile 
armies met on the 1st July, 1690, on the banks Ba tu e of the 
of the Boyne near Drogheda. A sanguinary en- B °y ne - 
gagement took place, in which Schomberg was killed. The sol- 
diers on both sides fought with the most determined courage; 
but the Irish army was not equal, in point of numbers, to that 
which William commanded. Fifteen hundred of James's troops 
were killed before victory declared for William. James, con- 
sidering his cause hopeless, fled to the south, and embarked for 
France, where he passed the remainder of his life. 

But the Irish army, though defeated at the Boyne, retreated 
in good order to the centre of the island. Dublin and the entire 
eastern coast yielded to William; but he soon sailed for Eng- 
land, as news had reached him that his fleet had been defeated 
by that of James. His generals, however, continued to prose- 
cute the war. In June, 1691, Athlone was taken by Be Gin- 
kle, and shortly afterward the defeat at Aughrim, where James's 
general, St. Ruth, and a very large number of troops were killed, 
gave to his cause a still gloomier aspect. Limerick, however, re- 
mained still firm to the cause of the Stuarts. When William 
returned from England he besieged that city, but the bravery of 
Sarsfield having led to the destruction of a large part of his 
artillery, and to the repeated repulse of the besieging forces, he 
again left Ireland, having abandoned the siege on the pretend- 
ed plea that the excessive rains had caused disease among his 
troops. 

But when almost all Ireland had yielded to William's generals, 
and the flower of the Irish army had fallen at Aughrim, Limerick 
was again besieged, and, after some time, capitulated, on the 
condition of honorable terms. According to the Treaty of Lime . 
" Treaty of Limerick," memorable for its being rick - 
soon violated by act of parliament, the king undertook to obtain 
for the Irish Catholics the free exercise of their religion and the 
peaceable enjoyment of their estates. Permission was given to 
those who wished to retire to France to do so, and, it is said, 



598 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1691. 



that 14,000 persons availed themselves of this privilege, and 
with Sarsfield embarked for the continent, where such as were 
soldiers formed themselves into a corps, which acquired fame 
under the title of the " Irish Brigade." 

James still indulged the hope of recovering his crown, and, 
having obtained a fleet from Louis, prepared to make a descent 
upon England. He was, however, anticipated, and his fleet was 
defeated with great loss in May, 1692, by Admiral Russell, off 
Cape La Hogue. This was the last attempt made by James to 
reinstate himself in the throne of his ancestors. It was not, 
however, till 1697, that Louis acknowledged, by the treaty of 
Ryswick, William as king of England. 

William had frequent disputes with his parliament, on the 
subject of money; and at last threatened to return to Holland 
unless his applications for taxes were more generously met. 
There was also much jealousy entertained by the English re- 
specting the foreign troops maintained by William — a feeling to 
which he was, after some time, obliged to yield. 

It was in this reign, in the year 1693, that some merchants 
subscribed £1,200,000 to establish the Bank of England. It so 
happened that, shortly after the incorporation of the company, 
old coin was called in to be exchanged for new, and the rapid 
demand nearly broke the bank. It was, however, saved by par- 
liamentary interference. 

Queen Mary died in 1694. . She possessed some good quali- 
ties; but her conduct in 1688, when she seemed totally insensi- 
Deatu of Queen ble to the misfortunes of her father, has left a 
Mary- deep stain upon her memory. Her death revived 

the hopes of the friends of James, as many considered that Wil- 
liam was only a king-consort, and that the death of his queen 
terminated his right to sovereignty. Several conspiracies were 
formed against him, but they were discovered. The act of set- 
tlement, which limited the crown to Protestants, was passed at 
this period. 

In 1701, James II. died, having passed several years in reli- 
gious retirement. He had spent a portion of each year with the 
Death of James, monks of La Trappe, and had adopted a demeanor 
and of William. ' ^^ s h owe d that he felt at last reconciled to his 
fall from worldly greatness. His last advice to his son was an 



1702 A. D.] WILLIAM AND MARY. 597 



injunction to forgive his enemies. On his death, Louis XIV. 
proclaimed his son king of England; for though he had acknow- 
ledged William, events had occurred which caused a renewal of 
hostilities between France and England. Charles of Spain hav- 
ing died leaving no children, bequeathed his crown to Philip, 
the grandson of Louis. William formed an alliance with the 
States of Holland and the emperor of Germany, to prevent this 
union of the monarchies of France and Spain, and to obtain 
Spain for the emperor. But the king of England did not live to 
carry on the war, for he soon afterward broke his collar-bone by a 
fall from his horse, and died, 8th March, 1702, in the 58th year 
of his age. 

William was very unpopular with the people of Scotland, upon 
whom the massacre of Glencoe made a deep impression. These 
feelings were still more imbittered by his conduct respecting the 
Darien expedition. This was a project for colonizing the Isth- 
mus of Darien, into which the people of Scotland had warmly 
entered about the close of the eighteenth century, and which at 
first received the approbation of the king and the sanction of 
parliament. Commercial jealousies intervened, and William was 
induced not only to withdraw his favor from the plan, but to as- 
sist the Spaniards in their opposition to the colonists who ven- 
tured "their lives and properties in making the attempt to carry it 
into execution. Some of the colonists, after suffering great pri- 
vations, succeded in reaching their country, where their account 
of all they endured roused a feeling of resentment against Eng- 
land to which many writers trace the growth of the strong feel- 
ing in favor of the Stuarts which so long prevailed in Scotland. 

It was in the reign of William that the standing army of 
England was first established by act of parliament, and under the 
same monarch the national debt commenced. Several distin- 
guished literary men flourished at the period, among whom the 
names of Newton, Locke, and Dryden hold the highest rank. 

In the delineation of the character of William, panegyric and 
censure have both been unsparingly used, and, as is generally the 
case in such circumstances, without much dis- William's cha- 
crimination. Had the great author, of whose truly racter - 
impartial history these pages are the continuation, carried his 
labors to a later period, it is likely that he would, in his fair and 



598 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1702. 

honest mode of dealing with character, have allotted to the prince 
of Orange (as to Cromwell) some good qualities, and many bad 
ones. He would, no doubt, have given him credit for being to a 
certain extent tolerant, while his powerful pen woitld have lashed 
William's feeble, if not pretended defence of the articles of 
Limerick from a parliamentary abrogation which fettered the 
Catholics of Ireland. And, while on national grounds he would 
have praised William's opposition to the virtual junction of the 
crowns of France and Spain, he would have in strong language 
denounced his share in the Glencoe massacre, and his duplicity 
respecting the Darien project. William's manner was cold and 
distant, but he is said to have grown animated in battle. He 
was a Calvinist in creed, and therefore by no means a favorite 
with the Protestant clergy of England. Ambition was his ruling 
passion, to gratify which, instead of endeavoring to promote peace 
between his uncle and father-in-law, James, and the subjects of 
that monarch, he employed years in fomenting English discord, 
and at last drove into exile a king to whom he ought to have felt 
that he was linked by the tenderest ties of nature. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

• fttttU. 

Anne succeeds to tho throne — England joins the Grand Alliance — Victories 
of Marlborough — The Union of England and Scotland — Impeachment of 
Sacheverell — Treaty of Utrecht — Death of Anne — Her Character. — From A. 
D. 1702 to 1714. 

Anne, the second daughter of James II., and wife of Prince 
George of Denmark, succeeded William on the throne of Eng- 
land, in accordance with the arrangements which had been made 
at the time of the revolution. She was at the period of her ac- 
cession thirty-eight years of age, and a member of the Church of 
England. She was not friendly to the policy of the whig party, 



1707 A. D.] ANNE. 599 

and appointed her ministers from among the tories. In her 
first address to parliament, she declared that her foreign policy 
would be guided by the same principles which had actuated her 
predecessor, and that she would maintain her place in the 
" grand alliance" — as the combination of England, Germany, and 
Holland against Louis XIV. was termed. Marl- Marlborough's 
borough was sent with a large force to the con- victories, 
tinent, and entered on that career which has rendered his name 
so distinguished in the military annals of England. Marlborough 
commenced operations in the Netherlands, and soon succeeded in 
taking Liege, where he found a large amount of treasure. In 1704, 
he gained the memorable victory of Blenheim, in which a large 
portion of the French army was slain ; and, having returned to 
England, he received the thanks of parliament, and an estate on 
which the queen ordered Blenheim House to be built. Marl- 
borough soon returned to the continent, and, in 1706, defeated 
the French under Marshal Villeroy, at Ramillies, in a battle 
which was hotly contested, and in which both armies displayed 
considerable valor. It is said that the French lost 8000 men, 
and the allies 3000 in this engagement ; which gave a heavy 
blow to French influence in the North of Europe. 

In Spain, Lord Peterborough, aided by Portugal, gained some 
important advantages, and even drove Philip from the capital. 
The important fortress of Gibraltar was, in 1704, taken by Rooke 
and Shovel, who commanded the English fleet on the Spanish 
coast. This place has remained ever since in the hands of the 
English. 

Louis, finding that he could not resist the allies, notwithstand- 
ing the ability of his generals and the bravery of his troops, made 
overtures, in 1706, for peace. Such, however, was the desire, 
on the part of England, to humble France, that the war was uni- 
versally popular, and negotiation distasteful to the national mind. 
Hostilities were protracted, and as a consequence, the national 
debt received a very large increase. 

In 1707, the union between England and Scotland took place. 
This measure principally owed its origin to the course which the 
Scottish parliament had begun to adopt on the sub- Union of En _. 
ject of the succession. That body had passed a land and Scotland. 
measure, the "act of security," by which it was enacted that the 



600 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1707. 

successor of Anne should not, as regarded Scotland, be the same 
person whom England might accept, unless Scotland obtained 
certain commercial privileges which were then withheld. An act 
for arming Scotland was passed at the same time. These steps 
alarmed the English ministers, and commissioners were appointed 
to draw up articles of union. The articles were presented to the 
Scottish parliament, and led to very warm debates. By these ar- 
ticles the two nations were declared to be united under the one 
government and legislature, but each was to retain its own legal 
forms. The Presbyterian Church was to be guaranteed to Scot- 
land, which country was to send forty-five representatives to the 
British house of commons, and sixteen to the house of lords. 
The union was very unpopular in Scotland, (for the people re- 
gretted to see their legislature passing away from them,) but, by 
threats and bribery, the measure was carried, and from the 1st 
May, 1707, the two countries were united under the title of 
Great Britain. 

The discontent which prevailed in Scotland was carefully ob- 
served in France, and roused the hopes of the son of James II., 
Chevalier de St. who, under the name of James III., resided at the 
George. French court. He was known also by the title of 

the Chevalier de St. George, and was by the English termed the 
Pretender. Louis assisted him with an armament, and in 1707 
he sailed for Scotland, to which country many of the Scottish no- 
bility invited him. " I hope I shall never see you again/' were 
the parting words of the king of France, who expected that, by 
giving England some military affairs to attend to in Scotland, he 
would divert her armies from his own territories. The Stuart 
squadron was, however, attacked by some English ships of war 
under admiral Byng. Several of the French vessels were captured, 
and the others with difficulty got back to Dunkirk. The Chevalier 
escaped, and made no further attempt till 1715. 

In the year 1708, Prince George of Denmark died, having 
been for twenty-five years married to the queen. He possessed 
no abilities, but his mild and unambitious temperament won for 
him many friends, and he passed his life without interfering with 
any of the political intrigues of the time. To a man of ambi- 
tious views, the period offered many temptations, and in such 
hands the act of settlement (to which Anne was by no means 



1709 A. D.] ANNE. 601 

partial) might have been altered to enable him to succeed the 
queen should he survive her. 

About the close of the year 1709, intense popular excitement 
prevailed in England, in consequence of the impeachment of a 
clergyman named Sacheverell, who had preached The impeach- 

. . . , . , . merit of Sacheve- 

a sermon containing language so violent against reii. 
the whig party, then in office, that ministers resolved on a prose- 
cution. In order to account for the great interest which this 
trial caused, we must first explain the state of religious feeling at 
that period in England. 

The whig party had now been predominant from the time of 
the Revolution, but after the death of William III., their power 
began to decline, for the sentiments of Anne leaned toward the 
tories. By degrees the political errors into which James had 
fallen were passing from the minds of the people, and toryism 
became the popular creed. A very strong sentiment in favor of 
the Protestant religion gained ground throughout the kingdom, 
and a hostile feeling toward dissenters, to whom the whigs were 
inclined to be tolerant. The people and the queen held one set 
of opinions, while the ministers (whom the queen was anxious to 
have some plausible reason for dismissing) professed another. 

While these clashing views were tending in no small degree to 
disturb public tranquillity, the flame of discord was kindled into a 
glow by Dr. Sacheverell, who, at St. Saviour's church in London, 
preached a sermon in which he plainly conveyed that the time 
was come when the tolcrators of dissent had endangered the 
church, and that the people should take up arms in its defence. 
He was tried and found guilty, but such was his popularity that 
the whig ministers were afraid to punish him severely, and he 
shortly afterwards made a species of triumphal progress through 
a large portion of the kingdom. 

Shortly after the trial of Dr. Sacheverell, two tories were, 
through court influence, introduced into the ministry. These 
were Harley, afterward Earl of Oxford, and St. John, afterward 
Lord Bolingbroke. Disputes having arisen between these two 
statesmen and the prime-minister Godolphin, he dismissed them, 
which course gave such displeasure to the queen, that she soon 
afterward recalled them to power, and directed them to form a 
ministry. At the general election which shortly took place, the 

2N 51 



602 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A.D. 1709. 



whigs were left in a considerable minority. Marlborough., about 
this time, was recalled through the influence of court enemies. 

Negotiations for peace were soon commenced by the tory ad- 
ministration, who were by no means so hostile to France as their 

The treaty of whig predecessors in office. After some resistance 
Utrecht. j n ^g nouse f lords, these negotiations were sup- 

ported by parliament; and, in 1713, Great Britain and Holland, 
without the concurrence of Germany, concluded the peace of 
Utrecht. The principal article in this treaty was, that Philip 
should be king of Spain, but neither he nor any of his descend- 
ants king of France, and that no king of France should ever in- 
herit the crown of Spain. England was to retain Minorca and 
Gibraltar. Thus, after a lavish waste of life and treasure, a war 
was brought to an end, by which, although England added to her 
military name, she largely increased her national debt and ob- 
tained very inadequate advantages. 

Shortly after the peace of Utrecht, Queen Anne died suddenly, 
(1st August, 1714,) and with her terminated the main Stuart 
Death of the ^ ne - ^ ne Hanoverian descendants of James I., 
f i ueeu - another branch of the Stuart line, succeeded to 

the throne. There is every reason to believe that Anne was 
anxious to cause the Act of Settlement to be repealed, and to 
promote the restoration of her own family to the crown. It has 
been made plain by the publication in later times of the cor- 
respondence of Bolingbroke, that he and Oxford, though they 
became hostile to each other, carried on communications for this 
purpose with the court of France. The epieen's death, however, 
put an end to the project. 

Anne was not remarkable for large capabilities of mind, or 
(though well looking) for great beauty of person. Her disposi- 
tion was vacillating, and she was easily governed 

iier character. ^ the ^ favoriteg who att ended her court. 

One of these, a Mrs. Masham, obtained complete power over her, 
and, by her advice, principally caused the rise of the tory admi- 
nistration of 1710. Though hostile to the Catholics, Anne dis- 
liked still more the thoughts of the Hanoverian succession, be- 
cause she considered the whigs to be but cold friends of the Pro- 
testant church. Her reign is distinguished for the military 
achievements which British arms accomplished on the continent 



1714 A. D.] GEORGE THE FIRST. 603 



under Marlborough, and still more by the literary genius of a 
period which has been denominated the Augustan age of English 
literature, during which the talents of Pope, Swift, Addison, 
Steele, and many other distinguished ornaments of the world of 
letters flourished. It is a dark stain on the memory of Anne 
that it was during her reign the penal laws against the Irish 
Catholics first began to develop that spirit of systematic persecu- 
tion which so deeply wounded the best interests of Ireland, and 
left a social scar which it will take more time to heal completely, 
than to obliterate from history the recollection of the glories of 
Blenheim or of Ramillies. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

ieargt t\n first. 

Accession of George the First — Insurrection in Scotland — South Sea Bubble — 
Death of the King.— A. D. 1714 to 1727. 

George, elector of Hanover and first British monarch of the 
house of Brunswick, was descended maternally from James I., 
whose only daughter, Elizabeth, married Frederick The guccession 
of Bohemia, the father of Sophia, electress of of George the First. 
Hanover, of whom George was the son. As the Act of Settle- 
ment, passed during William's reign, limited the crown to Sophia 
of Hanover, and her Protestant heirs, George, whose mother had 
lately died, became by force of that statute, king of England, 
and soon arrived to take possession of the throne. He had 
reached his fifty-fourth year, and had displayed a fair amount of 
ability, though of by no means shining mental qualities. 

He commenced his reign by showing the tories that he con- 
sidered them hostile to the Hanoverian succession, and he accord- 
ingly dismissed them from his councils and called the whigs to 
office under the earl of Halifax, appointing Marlborough com- 
mander-in-chief of the army. The house of commons prepared 
articles of impeachment against Oxford, Bolingbroke, and others 



(304 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1714 



of their party. Bolingbroke fled to France, but Oxford remained 
to stand his trial. As there were serious differences between the 
lords and commons on the subject of his guilt, he was acquitted; 
a result perhaps partly attributable to the circumstance that Ox- 
ford was very much liked by the people. 

The popular feeling against the whig administration encouraged 
the tories to choose this period for making an attempt to place 
insurrection in tne Chevalier on the throne, and by restoring the 
Scotland. Stuarts, to overthrow the whigs, whose feelings 

were all upon the Hanoverian side. Accordingly, in September, 
1715, the Earl of Mar raised the banner of the Stuarts in Scot- 
land, and was joined by 10,000 Highlanders. At the same time, 
the earl of Derwentwater and some other noblemen took up arms 
in Northumberland, and having received reinforcements from 
Scotland, proceeded toward the South and endeavored to rouse 
the people of England against George I. The adherents of the 
Stuart cause (who were called Jacobites) were obliged to sur- 
render to the government troops at Preston, in Lancashire. At 
the same time, the earl of Mar came to an engagement at Sheriff- 
muir in Scotland, with the Duke of Argyle, on which occasion 
neither army obtained a victory. 

To France, Mar looked with an anxious eye ; but Louis XIV. 
was now dead, and the regent Orleans, wishing to cultivate 
friendly relations with George I., refused to assist in the attempt 
to place a Stuart on the English throne. The Chevalier sailed 
for Scotland alone in December, 1$15, but in a short time it be- 
came apparent that his cause could not be sustained, and he re- 
turned to France, accompanied by the earl of Mar, while the 
troops which had served under that general, dispersed. The earl 
of Derwentwater and many others of various ranks in society, 
were executed for appearing in arms ; many families lost their 
estates ; and several persons of a high position in society were 
sent from Great Britain in exile to America. 

Although the attempt against the throne was defeated, still 
there soon arose considerable popular discontent and ministers 
felt this to such an extent that, in 1716, they carried the " Septen- 
nial Act," which increased the duration of parliament from three 
to seven years. The king soon afterward paid a visit to his Ger 
man dominions, which were threatened by Charles of Sweden 



1727 A. D.] GEORGE THE FIRST. 605 



On Lis return he arrested the Swedish ambassador, who was 
proved to be implicated in a fresh attempt on behalf of the Stuart 
dynasty. 

In 1719, the king of Spain made an attempt to regain the 
portion of Italy which formerly had belonged to that country, 
and England interfered to prevent his success by despatching 
Admiral Byng to the Mediterranean, who gained a decided vic- 
tory over the Spanish fleet. France soon afterward joined in the 
war against Spain. George I. paid another visit to Germany at 
this time, and entered into a treaty with the queen of Sweden — 
Charles II. having been killed in battle. An alliance was soon 
formed, which included England, France, Germany, and Spain, 
and the king returned to Great Britain. 

It was about this period that the remarkable delusion known 
as the " South Sea Bubble" began to influence the South gea Bul> 
public mind. A Scotchman named Law, who had ble - 
risen to importance in France by holding out to the people of that 
country promises of great national wealth, came to England and 
started a joint-stock company, which professed to trade to the 
South Sea, but which offered to shareholders profits much larger 
than could be expected from ordinary commerce. A large number 
of persons entered into the speculation, and the shares rose to a 
very high price. After some time other similarly visionary plans 
were projected, but the shares began to fall, and many who had 
ventured their money were ruined. The public discontent rose to 
such a height that the government had to interfere. A committee 
was appointed to consider and report on claims, and an arrange- 
ment was made by the help of the Bank of England and the East 
India Company, by means of which the sufferers were appeased, 
though several were losers to a large extent. 

Another conspiracy was entered into about this period in favor 
of the Stuarts, in which Bishop Atterbury and several other per- 
sons of distinction were implicated. Many arrests took place, and 
some executions, but tranquillity was soon restored. 

Sir Robert Walpole was now prime-minister, and maintained 

himself in power for twenty years. During the latter part of 

the reign of George I., public attention was prin- The death of the 

cipally occupied with preparations for naval and kin s- 

military armaments, which the king endeavored to collect, for 

51* 



606 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A.D. 1727. 

the purpose of opposing Austria and Spain. In June, 1727, 
George left England again to visit Germany, and on this occasion 
returned no more; for during the journey he was seized with 
paralysis, and died at Osnabruck, on the 11th July, in the 68th 
year of his age, and thirteenth of his reign, leaving two child- 
ren, a son and a daughter, to survive him. 

George I. possessed no great qualifications. He did not under- 
stand the state of parties in England, and consequently often fell 
into political mistakes. He was even ignorant of 
the English language, and, by disregarding popular 
feeling, created much hostility to his measures. In looking back, 
however, on this reign, we recognise the names of some of the 
most distinguished ornaments of literature, including Addison, 
Pope, and several other masters in English composition. This too 
was the period when, in Ireland, the talents of Swift shone most 
conspicuously, for it was in 1724 that he, by the publication of 
the famous "Drapier's Letters," added the character of patriot 
to that of an eminent literary man. In this reign died Sir Isaac 
Newton at an advanced age ; and the same period saw the deter- 
mination of the career of the once illustrious Marlborough. 



CHAPTER XL. 

imp i\n ^nflitft. 

War with Spain — England supports the cause of Maria Theresa — Charles 
Edward lands in Scotland — Battles of Prestonpans and of Culloden — Peace 
of Aix-la-Chapelle — War between England and France renewed — Surrender 
of Quebec — War in the East Indies — Death of the King. — From A. D. 1727 
to 1760. 

As soon as intelligence arrived from the continent that George I. 
was no more, his son, then at Richmond, was proclaimed king as 
George II. Sir Robert "Walpole was minister, and was, together 
with his colleagues, retained in power. The king and queen 
were crowned at Westminster Abbey, on the 11th October, 
1727. 



1742 A. D.] GEORGE THE SECOxND. 607 



A contest with Spain, which lasted for a considerable period, 
was one of the principal circumstances attending contest -with 
the reign of George II. This war took its rise s P ain - 
from some efforts made by Spain to check the trade between Eng- 
land and the Spanish colonies of America. British ships were 
searched by the Spaniards on the high seas, which so irritated the 
English people, that war was resolved upon, though Walpole was 
reluctant to enter into the contest. Two fleets were despatched, 
one to the coast of Spain, and another to America. The latter, 
under the command of Admiral Vernon, succeeded in taking 
Portobello, a town of considerable importance in the West Indies. 
Reinforcements were sent to Vernon, but as disputes arose between 
him and the commander of the troops which were sent out, no 
more victories were obtained. Carthagena was bombarded, but 
without success, and a large number of British soldiers perished 
in the attempt. A third fleet, commanded by Admiral Anson, 
sailed to Spanish America to assist Vernon ; but Anson lost se- 
veral ships, and, being unable to render effective aid to his brother 
admiral, he cruised along the eastern coast of South America and 
took several prizes. ' He even crossed the Pacific to China and 
refitted his ships at Canton. Returning thence, he fell in with a 
Spanish galleon (the Manilla) which he took, and found on board 
treasure to the amount of £300,000, with whiqh he came back to 
England, where he was received with welcome, on account of the 
money he brought to the public treasury. Anson was the first 
navigator who sailed round the world. 

Our attention must now be turned to the European continent, 
which was embroiled in war in consequence of the rival claims 
for the empire of Germany. When the emperor, 
Charles VI., died, his daughter, Maria Theresa, 
queen of Hungary, was entitled to his throne by right of in- 
heritance. She was opposed by several princes, one of whom, the 
elector of Bavaria, was crowned emperor as Charles VII., and re- 
ceived the support of France. George II., considering that the 
increase of French influence in Germany would endanger his 
Hanoverian dominions, took part with Maria Theresa, and found 
the people of England willing to support him in his views. Sir 
Robert Walpole, however, held a different opinion, and refusing 
to be a party to the war, he ceased to be minister in 1742, hav- 



608 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1742. 



ing held office for more than twenty years. He was a man of 
great ability and a vigorous minister, but his official career was 
stained throughout by the systematic corruption, by means of 
which he made himself master of the house of commons. He 
was, on his retirement from power, created earl of Orford. 

In 1743, George II. joined the army which fought for Maria 
Theresa, and appeared in person at the battle of Dettingen, which 
was the last occasion on which a king of England entered the 

The French vie- & e ^- ^be British and Hanoverian troops compelled 
tory at Fontenoy. i\ lQ F re nch to retreat, but the advantage was not 
followed up. Soon afterward Charles VII. died ; but, in order 
to prevent the grand-duke of Tuscany, the husband of Maria 
Theresa, from being elected emperor, the French continued to 
prosecute the war. Count Saxe, a general of great ability, com- 
manded the French army, and the duke of Cumberland, son of 
George II., led the British and Hanoverian forces. Tournay was 
besieged by Saxe, and, in order to save that city, the British army 
advanced to Fontenoy, where, May, 1745, a fierce battle, at which 
Louis XV., the king of France, was present, took place, and the 
French gained the victory, principally in consequence of the 
courage of the " Irish Brigade." The duke of Cumberland lost 
7000 men on this occasion. Soon afterward, however, the 
grand-duke of Tuscany was elected emperor of Germany. 

In 1745 another attempt was made by the Stuarts to regain 
the British throne. The son of James II. had married, in 1719, 
the princess Clementina Sobieski, grand-daughter of the great 

Charles Edward John Sobieski, king of Poland. They had two 
sails for Scotland. gonSj ^ c e i c | er f w hom, Charles Edward, resolved 
in his twenty-fifth year to make an effort for his family. He was 
encouraged by the ill success which the arms of George had met 
with on the continent, and by the political feuds which had gained 
strength in England. In 1744 he was declared by a procla- 
mation, which his father, then at Rome, issued, regent of the 
British islands, and he immediately took steps to carry into effect 
the designs he had formed. France furnished a fleet, but it was 
driven back by storm, and was so closely watched by the English 
admiral, Norris, who commanded a superior armament, that it 
was detained in the French port. In June, 1745, Charles Ed- 
ward sailed for Scotland with a few friends, and landed on the 



1746 A. D.] GEORGE THE SECOND. 609 

coast of Inverness, where lie was soon joined by several High- 
land chieftains at the head of their respective clans. In August 
he took the field with a considerable force, and, having proclaimed 
his father king of Great Britain, he marched to Edinburgh, of 
which he obtained possession without opposition. 

George II. had sent orders to Sir John Cope, commander of 
the troops in Scotland, to advance against Charles, but the line 
of march he took was one which left the road to Edinburgh open. 
Cope returned to the neighborhood of the Scottish J^™^,^. 
capital, and at Prestonpans a battle was fought, on tonpans. 
the 21st September, between him and Charles, in which the lat- 
ter gained the victory. He did not, however, follow up his ad- 
vantage with rapidity, but lost several weeks in the parade of 
royalty at Holyrood House. It is probable that he acted thus in 
consequence of the expectation of troops from France. ' Some 
reinforcements came from that country, and several Highland 
chieftains who had kept aloof at first, now joined the Stuart, 
prince, who entered England in November, crossing the border 
with 5000 men. He easily took Carlisle, and marched, un- 
checked, through the North of England as far as Derby. Here 
he learned that George II. was at the head of a large army, 
which was encamped near London, and which was each day in- 
creasing in number. The duke of Cumberland came over with 
6000 Dutch soldiers, and, as the people of England gave no as- 
sistance to the Stuart cause— only 200 having joined the stan- 
dard of Charles— it now became necessary to adopt some decisive 
course of operations. The young prince proposed to advance on 
London, which would, he considered, give his friends in the me- 
tropolis courage to declare for him. But the opinion among 
most of Charles's officers was, that by returning to Scotland he 
could increase his army, and take the field in the following- 
spring with troops refreshed by rest. The latter opinion pre- 
vailed, and, on the 6th December, the retreat to Scotland com- 
menced. Though the duke of Cumberland, with some regiments 
of cavalry, endeavored to overtake the Stuart army, he did not 
succeed, and Charles not only returned safely to Scotland, but 
was soon joined by a. large body of new adherents. In January, 
1746, he engaged General Hawtrey at Falkirk, and. having de- 



G10 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1746. 



feated hhn, marched to Inverness, where he rested with his 
forces. 

The duke of Cumberland, having soon arrived in Scotland, pre- 
pared to take the field without delay, as he was at the head of a 
large army. He remained at Edinburgh for a short time, and 
in February marched to Aberdeen, where he received reinforce- 
Battie of Cuiio- ments, and soon moved against Charles, who drew 
don - up his troops at Culloden, near Inverness, and of- 

fered battle to the duke. They engaged on the 16th April, 
1746. Charles had 8000 men; but the duke had the advantage 
in numbers, and obtained a complete victory over the Stuart 
forces. The conquerors stained their arms by the indiscriminate 
and remorseless slaughter of the vanquished, and, contrary to the 
practice of civilized war, spared not even the wounded, who lay 
disabled on the field. Charles, after wandering for several months 
in the Highlands, escaped to France, though a large reward 
(£30,000) was offered for his capture. It is most honorable to 
the Highlanders, to many of whom he made himself known, that 
they did not betray him, as he reposed confidence in their fidelity 
to his cause. 

When the civil war had thus been brought to a close, several 
noblemen were tried for high-treason, and executed, among 
whom were Lords Kilmarnock, Balmerino, and Lovat. Many 
also of the humbler classes were put to death in England and 
Scotland, and for several months the Highlands were subjected 
to all the cruelties which an unrestrained soldiery could inflict. 
After some time, however, the government began to conciliate 
the Highlanders. The power which the chieftains of clans pos- 
sessed over their followers was brought by degrees within consti- 
tutional limits, and the people of Scotland never afterward 
showed any tendency to revive the Stuart cause. 

During the events which we have been considering, the war 
continued with unabated vigor on the continent. The French 
obtained numerous victories by land; but the British navy tri- 
umphed in many important engagements, especially in a memo- 
rable action off Cape Finisterre, in which Admirals Anson and 
Warren defeated the French, and took a large amount of trea- 
sure. Other naval victories were obtained by Commodore Fox and 



1748 A. D.] GEORGE THE SECOND. 611 



Admiral Hawkc. War continued till 1748, when 

• ' The peace of 

peace was concluded at Aix-la-Chapelle. The war Aix-ia-chapeiie— 
had lasted nine years, and both England and France 
had sustained considerable loss. It was respectively agreed upon 
that all conquests should be restored, and that both nations should 
return to the condition in which they stood before the war. 
This protracted contest, so fruitless in results, added £30,000,000 
to the national debt of Great Britain. 

For some years after the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, England 
enjoyed peace with foreign nations and tranquillity at home. In 
1750, the prince of Wales died, leaving a son, who afterward 
ascended the throne as George III. In the same year the new 
style (a correction of the calendar to the amount of eleven days, 
founded on a calculation made by Pope Gregory) was adopted in 
England by act of parliament. For a considerable time the 
honorable Henry Pelham was prime-minister, and it was at this 
period that William Pitt, afterward the earl of Chatham, began 
to take a prominent part in public affairs. 

The nation now devoted much attention to colonization, and 
principally from this cause sprang the wars which disturbed the 
closing years of the reign of George II. and the War renewed be- 

L^iix^i- i t T-zn tween France and 

commencement of that ot his grandson. In 1/ob, England, 
war broke out between England and France, in consequence of 
disputes which took place on the subject of the western boundary 
of the North American colonies. The French drew a line of 
forts, from their possessions in Canada, along the country, behind 
the English colonies, from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi, 
so as to prevent the British colonists from obtaining too extensive 
a territory in America. This conduct was, of course, resented 
by England, and the forts were attacked. The native Indians 
took part with the French, and caused several disasters to the 
British troops. Some very severe engagements took place, in 
one of which (the attack on Ticonderoga) there was great loss 
of life. General Braddock, an inexperienced officer, made an 
attack on the French, on the banks of the Ohio; but, falling 
into an ambuscade, he and seven hundred of his men were killed, 
and the artillery and baggage fell into the hands of the enemy. 

After some time, however, the English soldiers became better 
acquainted with the country, and, having taken possession of 



612 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1759. 

several of the forts, proceeded to prepare for an at- 

Ihe surrender . _, ' ' , x x 

Quebec. tack on Canada. I he troops under General Wolfe 

took Quebec in 1759, but he was killed during the assault. The 
French were commanded by general Montcalm, an experienced 
and able officer, and the approaches to Quebec were strongly for- 
tified. Wolfe, leading his men forward, received a bullet in the 
breast, and fell. The battle continued, and, after a short time, 
Wolfe heard the words, " They run." " Who run?" asked the 
dying soldier, and, learning that it was the enemy, he exclaimed, 
" Then I die happy," and expired. The town soon capitulated. 
After some time, Montreal was taken ; and the conquest of Canada 
was soon completed. 

We must go back somewhat in time, in order to consider the 
progress made by British arms in the East Indies, where war 
raged with violence for a considerable time. At this period, al- 
though the East India Company had been a long time formed, 
the French possessions in the Indies were very extensive. When 

The war in the war Dr °ke out between England and France, India 
East indies. became one of the scenes of the contest. Colonel 

Clive (afterward Lord Clive) commanded the British troops, and 
gained so many important victories that to him is attributed the 
consolidation of the political power of England in the East. His 
victory at Plassey, in June, 1756, over the combined forces of 
France and of the native princes, mainly contributed to the 
downfall of French influence in India, and, after a severe strug- 
gle, France lost almost all her Eastern possessions. 

It was during this war that the awful tragedy took place in 
Calcutta, of the suffocation of one hundred and twenty-three per- 
sons in a dungeon called the " Black Hole." The native prince 
of Bengal, Surajah Dowlah, had besieged Calcutta, which was 
the chief seat of English commerce, and succeeded in taking that 
important place. Contrary to a promise of kind treatment, one 
hundred and forty-six prisoners were thrown one evening into a 
narrow cell, only eighteen feet square, and badly ventilated. 
The sentinel told the prisoners that he dared not awaken his 
prince till morning; and, during the night, they all died of suf- 
focation, with the exception of twenty-three persons. This brutal 
act roused the anger of the English : Clive soon retook Calcutta, 
and, pursuing the native forces, gained over them and the French 



=±J 



A. D. 1759.] GEORGE THE SECOND. 613 

the memorable victory of Plassey, to which we have above refer- 
red. Surajak Dowlah, who had been guilty of such inhuman 
cruelty to the English prisoners, was overtaken in flight, and put 
to death. 

While the British colonies in each hemisphere were thus the 
scenes of most important contests, England was also engaged in 
war unon the European continent. She formed England forms 

^ r ,'.-.__ , . n an alliance with 

an alliance with Frederick the Great, King ot Frederick of Prus- 
Prussia, against the combined forces of France, 
Russia, Austria, and Poland, with a view to protect Hanover. 
The duke of Cumberland was appointed commander of the Bri- 
tish forces on the continent, but met with many reverses, and, 
for a time, the French obtained possession of the Hanoverian ter- 
ritories. Frederick of Prussia, however, soon won back the elec- 
torate for England, and in return for his services he received 
considerable sums of money from the British revenue. These 
subsidies largely increased the national debt, as the taxes were 
insufficient for the numerous demands on the public treasury. 
The details of the war on the continent possess very little interest 
in connection with English history, it being principally as elector 
of Hanover that George II. took part in the contest. At sea, Great 
Britain at this period maintained her high character, in consequence 
of the numerous victories gained by Hawke, Rodney, and other 
distinguished admirals. So jealous were the English people of 
their maritime fame, that in 1757, Admiral John Byng was shot 
for not having (in the language of the charge) " done his utmost" 
against the enemy in a naval engagement near Minorca. As 
Byng was acquitted of cowardice, he was recommended to mercy; 
but the feeling against him was so strong that the sentence was 
carried into execution at Portsmouth, though great efforts were 
made to save him. 

Among other naval engagements, which took place about 
this time, was one between Captain Elliott and the French com- 
modore Thurot, who had attacked and taken Carrickfergus in the 
North of Ireland. Thurot, hearing that a large force was advanc- 
ing, returned on board ship, and set sail. He was met by Elliott, 
and, after a severe engagement near the Irish coast, in which 
Thurot was killed, the French were defeated, and their ships 

taken. 

52 



GH HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1760. 



George II. died suddenly, on the 25th October, 1760, in con- 
sequence of the bursting of the left ventricle of the heart. He 
The death of the was fond of war, which was one of the reasons 
ter.° ' " why England was at this time so deeply plunged 

into debt. His reign, though not marked by the same literary 
glory which has rendered the two previous reigns so conspicuous 
in letters, could boast of many learned men and able writers. It 
was during this reign that Fielding, Smollett, and Richardson 
gave prominence to works of fiction; that Thomson, Akenside, 
Collins, Young, and Gray acquired celebrity as poets, and that 
Johnson commenced his great literary career. Robertson and 
Hume partly belong to the same reign — the former, the author 
of several classically written, but by no means truthful, histories, 
and the latter best known as the author of " The History of Eng- 
land," a work which, on account of the graces of style, obtained 
a high character, but the errors of which have been refuted by 
the learning of Dr. Lingard. It was at this period that Wesley 
and Whitefield founded the sect known as Methodists. Period- 
ical literature on the present system, took its rise in 1731, when 
the Gentleman's Magazine commenced; and it was during the 
reign of George II. that newspapers began to enter distinctly on 
the discussion of public affairs. 

In Ireland, the penal laws against the Catholics continued dur- 
ing this reign with unabated rigor, and the transactions in that 

Ireland during kingdom do not present much which demands at- 
his reign. tentive consideration. In 1753, a contest took 

place between the crown and the Irish house of commons on a 
financial subject, and from this, dates the rise of the parliament- 
ary party, which was led by Henry Flood, who entered the 
house in 1759, and afterward by Grattan, and other distinguished 
men, and which caused such important changes in public affairs. 
The Irish people took no part in the struggle of 1745. Their 
known partiality to the Stuarts led the government to fear that 
they would give assistance to Charles Edward, and the lord lieu- 
tenant (Lord Chesterfield) prudently sought to conciliate the Ca- 
tholics; but, when the danger passed away, they were left in the 
same servitude as before. 

In 1755 the greater part of the city of Lisbon was destroyed 



17G0A.D.] GEORGE THE THIRD. 615 

by an earthquake, on which occasion England sent £100,000 to 
alleviate the sufferings of the surviving population. 

George II. had two sons, the prince of Wales and the duke of 
Cumberland. The former having died, his son became king, as 
George III. He had also five daughters, one of whom married 
the prince of Orange, and another the king of Denmark. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

imp tin ifeirir. 

The Accession of the King — "War between England and Franco continued — 
Treaty of Paris — John Wilkes — Policy of England toward her American 
Colonies — Stamp Act — Hostilities commenced between England and the 
Colonies — Declaration of American Independence — Peace between England 
and the United States declared— Efforts to repeal the Penal Laws— Riots in 
consequence — The Impeachment of Hastings — England joins the war against 
France— The success of the British Arms in Spain— War with the United 
States— England again joins the Allies against Napoleon— Battle of Water- 
loo— Death, and Character of George the Third.— From A. D.1760 to 1820. 

George III. ascended the throne under circumstances which 
promised a long and popular reign. He was only twenty-two 
years of age, and was the first English king of the line of Bruns- 
wick who had been born in England. Shortly after his acces- 
sion he married the Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburgh Strelitz. 
In the first speech which he delivered to his parliament, he said, 
that having been " born and educated in England, he gloried in 
the name of Briton," and promised " that he would make it his 
constant study to guard the welfare of the people, over whom he 
was called upon to reign." He professed an anxiety for peace, 
but hoped that such supplies would be granted as would enable 
the crown to prosecute the war in a manner which would lead to 
its being brought to a close on honorable conditions. Parliament 
voted a large sum, and, to meet the interest on a new loan, an ad- 



616 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1762 

ditional tax was placed upon beer, which had the effect of causing 
a great amount of popular discontent. 

The king had been educated under the care of Lord Bute, a 
Scotch nobleman of tory, and even of Jacobite, tendencies. He 
possessed a great influence over the mind of his pupil, who, when 
he became monarch, appointed him joint secretary of state with 
Mr. Pitt. That statesman, however, held very different views 
from those of his colleague on many important subjects. Lord 
The war con- Bute was in favor of peace, but Pitt considered 

timied between ,r . pi i« ^ i i i .1 • . 

France and Eng- that a warlike policy was demanded by the mte- 
. laaa - rests of Britain. On learning that Prance was 

about to receive aid from Spain, Pitt advocated a declaration of 
war against the latter country, but, being overruled in his opi- 
nion, he resigned. The king conferred on him a pension of 
£3000 a year, and created his wife a peeress, under the title of 
baroness of Chatham. It was not till some years afterward that 
Pitt, as earl of Chatham, became a peer. Negotiations soon 
commenced, but they were unsuccessful, and not only did war 
continue between France and England, but Spain commenced 
hostilities, as Pitt had foretold. England, however, proved a 
match for the new combination, as her navy was in first-rate con- 
dition, and she took from Spain Havana, Manilla, and the Phi- 
lippine Islands. In Portugal, also, which had been invaded by 
Spain, England triumphed over the Spanish troops, and drove 
them into their own country. In Germany, the marquis of 
Granby commanded the British troops, and succeeded in gaining 
many advantages. Notwithstanding the success which had at- 
tended British arms, both at sea and on land, ministers found it 
so difficult to provide the supplies necessary for the support of so 
many armaments, that negotiations were again entered upon, and 
a peace, known as the " Treaty of Paris," was concluded in 
1763. By this treaty, England surrendered many of the con- 
quests which she had made during the war, among which Mar- 
tinique,- Guadaloupe, Havana, and other places of importance. 
She retained Canada, Louisiana, Cape Breton, Senegal, Grenada, 
Dominica, St. Vincent's, Tobago, numerous large tracts of the Coro- 
mandel coast in the East Indies, Minorca, (in the Mediterranean,) 
and East and West Florida. This war (called by historians the 
" Seven Years' War") had caused an addition of sixty millions 



17G3 A. D.] GEORGE THE THIRD. 617 



sterling to the national debt, which was now almost one hundred 
and forty millions. 

In England, at this period, the whigs were now beginning to 
lose the power they had possessed under the successive adminis- 
trations of Walpole, Pelham, Newcastle, and Pitt. The decline of 
As long as the Stuart claims were likely to be re- the whi s power, 
vived, the tories could not gain much influence with the people ; 
but as no attempt was made by the exiled family after that in 
1745, which terminated in a manner so disastrous to their cause, 
the lapse of time effaced from the popular mind those feelings 
which had given strength to the whig party. It is also to be ob- 
served that as George II. and the prince of Wales had very 
serious differences and became totally estranged from each other, 
the family of the latter were not likely to be on terms of close 
intimacy with the party from which the king's advisers were 
chosen. Lord Bute had instilled into the mind of his royal pu- 
pil high prerogative notions, and thus we will find that George 
III. showed, throughout his lengthened reign, a marked tendency 
in favor of the views respecting the power of the crown, which 
form the principal element in the opinions of tory statesmen. 
But Lord Bute was personally unpopular, and the peace of 1763 
was disliked by the nation because England thereby surrendered 
so much which her armies and fleets had won. A change, there- 
fore, took place in the administration, Mr. Grenville succeeding 
to the post of prime-minister; but there was no alteration in 
policy. 

At this period the writers who discussed national affairs in 
newspapers and other periodical publications, began to assume a 
tone which gave great offence to ministers. Among those who 
dealt most severely with the administration, was John Wilkes, 
member for Ailesbury, and editor of a paper called the North 
Briton. Wilkes, in the 45th number of his periodical, went so 
far as to impeach the veracity of the king. A The proseo „tion 
general warrant was issued against the editor, prin- of John Wilkes - 
ters, and publishers of the " North Briton," and by force of this, 
a king's messenger entered the house of Wilkes and apprehended 
him. He was examined, his papers were seized, and he was com- 
mitted to the Tower, but was soon released on the ground of his 
privilege as a member of parliament. The paper complained of 
2 52* 



018 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1G65 



was burned by the hands of the hangman ; and a riot took place 
on the occasion, for Wilkes was very popular. He brought an 
action against the secretary of state for seizing his person, and 
obtained damages — the judge, Chief-justice Pratt, laying it down 
as law that general warrants were illegal. Wilkes was, however, 
soon afterward expelled from the house of commons, as he was 
outlawed for not appearing to an indictment, and retired to France. 

In the year 1765, Mr. Grenville, prime-minister, brought in 
a bill to impose a tax on the North American colonies, in the 
form of a stamp duty, and from this circumstance 
es ampac . arose that discontent which (though partly allayed 
for a time in 1766) increased, till in a few years afterward the 
colonies declared themselves independent. We now, therefore, 
find ourselves entering on that period when one of the most im- 
portant struggles in history occurred, and it will be necessary to 
examine with care the progress of the contest. The stamp act 
was founded on the principle that as the expenses of the war had 
been increased by the defence of the American colonies, the colo- 
nists ought to pay portion of the national debt. The bill was 
passed into law, and caused great dissatisfaction in America, the 
colonists contending that, as they were not represented in the 
British parliament, and thus had no share in voting the supplies, 
they should not be called upon to contribute to the British re- 
venue. Their indignation rose to such a height, that they re- 
solved to resist the operation of the act, especially as they 
observed that their cause was advocated by Pitt, and other distin- 
guished members of the British legislature. Several of the 
colonial states assembled, and passed resolutions in which they 
protested against the assumed right of England to tax them. 
Those who were sent out with the stamped paper received such 
treatment that the act could not be enforced. In the following 
session the act was repealed, but unfortunately the germ of dis- 
cord was left, for a reservation (afterward acted upon) was made 
of the right of England to tax her colonies. 

The repeal of the- stamp act was one of the measures of Lord 
Rockingham, a whig nobleman, who had become minister, Mr. 
Grenville having resigned in consequence of a personal difference 
with the king, which arose from the omission of the name of the 
king's mother in a bill for appointing a regency in the case 



1770 A. D.] GEORGE THE THIRD. 619 



of any serious illness of the sovereign. Lord Rockingham, 
however, did not remain long in power, and was Taxes on ten> 
succeeded by the duke of Grafton as premier, and gla£S > &c - iai P° sed - 
Pitt (who was now created earl of Chatham) as lord privy seal ; 
but the popularity of Pitt was somewhat on the wane, and, his 
health having declined, he retired from office. It was during his 
last administration that Mr. Townsend, one of the ministers, pro- 
posed the imposition of taxes on tea, glass, and some other ar- 
ticles imported into America from Great Britain, which measure 
kindled afresh a flame of indignation throughout the North 
American colonies. 

In 1768, Wilkes returned to England, though he was still an 
outlaw, and, having surrendered, was fined and imprisoned. Such 
was his popularity, that he was elected member of wakes finally 

.. . ,..,.. TT • admitted to a seat 

parliament lor Middlessex. He was, however, ex- in parliament, 
pelled from the house, on the ground that having been solemnly 
censured by the preceding parliament, he was disqualified for 
life. Wilkes was repeatedly elected ; but as the house would 
not let him sit, violent tumults took place, and Wilkes, though a 
very immoral writer, became the idol of the people, on account 
of the representative principle with which he was identified. He 
was elected alderman, and even became lord mayor of London. 
In 1776 he was allowed to take his seat in the house, and soon 
afterward a motion was carried to erase from the journals of par- 
liament the record of the various decisions against his being per- 
mitted to act as a member. Though by no means of an estimable 
character, he was, through his boldness, the cause of some im- 
portant principles of civil liberty being preserved. 

In 1769, the famous letters of " Junius" appeared in the 
columns of one of the newspapers. These productions have al- 
ways been ranked among the finest compositions in the English 
language. They were levelled against ministers, and were so se- 
vere that for one of them (a letter to the king) the printer was 
prosecuted. The authorship of these remarkable letters has never 
been ascertained, but there are very strong proofs that they were 
written by Sir Philip Francis. 

In 1770, Lord North, son of the earl of Guilford, (but not 
himself a peer,) became prime-minister, which position he occu- 
pied for twelve years. It was during his administration that the 



620 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1770. 



contest took place which made the North American colonies an 
independent power — the rise, progress, and termination of which 
it now becomes our duty to relate. 

We have already stated that when, in 1766, the stamp act was 
repealed, the British legislature declared that they possessed the 
right to impose taxes on the North American colonies, and that 
in 1767, this principle was sought to be carried into operation by 

Taxes repealed, taxes on tea ? gla"ss, and other commodities. The 
except that on tea. indignation to which this course of action gave 
rise among the colonists was so great that England again yielded, 
but unfortunately again only yielded partially. All the taxes 
were repealed, in 1769, except that on tea, which was retained 
in order to carry out the principle of the right to tax. The 
amount of the duty (three pence per pound) was a mere trifle, 
but the colonies resolved to resist the principle of taxation, and 
in their minds the exact sum to be paid was of no importance. 
In fact, it so happened that, on account of a certain trade regu- 
lation which at this time came into operation, in the nature of a 
drawback, the duty did not affect the price to be paid by the 
American consumer. But the resentment felt by the Americans 
was so deep that in many of the states a resolution was adopted 
of not using any commodities imported from England. 

From 1770 to 1773, the anti-British feeling gained ground in 
America. The principal scene of discontent was Boston, in the 
state of Massachusetts; and, in order to overcome the growing 

The destruction sentiment against England, the East India Com- 
of tea at Boston, pany shipped several cargoes of tea principally for 
Boston, to be sold there at a very low price. But so intense was 
the feeling of the Americans that when the ships, laden with tea, 
arrived in Boston harbor, they were boarded and the tea was 
thrown into the water. When the tidings of this proceeding 
reached England, an act was passed which prohibited all com- 
mercial intercourse with the port of Boston, and by another mea- 
sure the legislative assembly of the state of Massachusetts was 
declared to be abolished. These acts were passed in the spring 
of 1774, and had the effect of rousing those who hitherto had 
not been so prominent as the inhabitants of Boston in opposition 
to England; and, in the autumn of 1774, a congress of representa- 
tives from several states assembled in Philadelphia, passed reso- 



1776 A. D.] GEORGE THE THIRD. 621 

lutions against the course adopted by Great Britain, and declared 
against commercial intercourse with England until the statutes 
complained of should be repealed. 

England might now have conciliated the colonies by repealing 
the three-penny tea-duty act, and the statutes which had been 
aimed at Boston. Her most distinguished senators 

° The commence- 

advised such a policy, and foremost among them went of hostilities 
was Edmund Burke, an Irishman, who had now and the American 
risen to eminence, and who delivered, in 1774 and coomes - 
1775, some of his greatest orations. But ministers could not 
submit to the humiliation of yielding ; and, having resolved on 
attempting to gain their object by force of arms, refused to hearken 
to any proposal short of American subjection. As the colonists 
were equally resolved not to concede, there was of course no 
alternative but war, and accordingly in spring, 1775, hostilities 
commenced. 

The first military encounter between the royalists and the 
Americans took place at Lexington, near Boston, in April, 1775, 
on which occasion the latter gained the advantage. A much 
more important engagement took place on the 7th June, in the 
same year, at Bunker's Hill, also near Boston. The Americans 
inflicted severe injury on the British army; but the latter main- 
tained their position. The war soon spread, and even Canada 
was invaded, but without success, by the Americans, who in an 
attack on Quebec, lost Montgomery, an Irish soldier, one of the 
ablest of the American generals. 

• George Washington was appointed in June, 1775, to command 
the American forces, and the war began to assume an aspect which 
caused the British ministers to offer pardon to those who would 
lay down their arms. As, however, the Americans wanted some- 
thing more than mere pardon, the offer was rejected Declaration of 
with ridicule. The deputies from the states con- independence. 
tinued to meet, and, having abandoned all hope of peace on honor- 
able terms, that body, in a solemn address known in history as the 
11 Declaration of Independence" announced to the world, on the 
4th July, 1776, that the North American colonies were free and 
sepai'ate states, and were absolved from all allegiance to the 
British crown. 

The war was now prosecuted with vigor on both sides. Boston 



622 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1777. 



was evacuated by the British soldiers, who sailed thence to Halifax 
in Nova Scotia. Fresh troops were sent out from England, and 
the British generals, Howe, Clinton, and others, gained several 
important advantages. It was of course a considerable time be- 
fore the Americans could become so disciplined as to be on an 
equality with the well-trained troops from England. But the 
colonists, or, as historians term them after the declaration of in- 
dependence, the republicans, patiently endured many hardships 
and sufferings rather than yield. On several occasions they suc- 
ceeded in obtaining some very decided advantages over the Eng- 
lish; and, in December, 1777, they compelled a considerable force 
under general Burgoyne to surrender at Saratoga. 

In England the progress of the American war was of course 
watched with anxious interest, and the parliamentary debates dis- 
played a growing strength on the part of the opposition. Chatham 

Death of Chat- was now dead; having, to his last breath, recommend- 
ham - ed peace and conciliation. He did not, however, 

advocate the principle that America should be an independent 
power. The last time he spoke in parliament he fainted, and, 
being carried home, died in a few weeks. Fox and Burke were 
now the leading members of the opposition, and when the news 
of the defeat at Saratoga reached England, the former proposed 
that the war should be discontinued. The motion was unsuccess- 
ful, but received the support of 165 members. 

The cause of the Americans continued to succeed, and, in 
1778, ministers sent out commissioners to treat of peace. But 
the republicans were now conscious of their strength, and refused 
to entertain any proposals which were not based on the acknow- 
ledgment of their independence and the withdrawal of the British 

Peace between troops. The English government would not then 
England and Ame- CO nsent to these terms, and the commissioners re- 

ncan colonies de- ' 

dared. turned, having been treated by the Americans with 

the same haughtiness which, in 1775, had been shown by Eng- 
land toward the American commissioners, who in that year had 
come to England to endeavor to prevent war. In 1778, Franklin, 
the American philosopher, was sent to France, which country 
soon acknowledged the independence of America, and sent out 
troops under La Fayette to assist the republicans. Soon after- 
ward, Spain and Holland adopted the same course, so that Eng- 



1780 A. D.] GEORGE THE THIRD. 623 

land had to contend with determined enemies, both in the Old and 
in the New World, and it was now apparent that the Americans 
must succeed. In 1781, Lord Cornwallis was defeated at York- 
town, in Virginia, by Washington, which event terminated active 
hostilities. A motion for peace was carried in the English house 
of commons early in 1782. Lord North resigned, and the mar- 
quis of Rockingham became prime-minister, with Fox as one of 
the secretaries of state. Preparations for peace were made without 
delay; but in April, 1782, Admiral Rodney engaged the French 
fleet near Dominica, and gained a complete victory. This action 
had the effect of enabling ministers to obtain peace on terms 
somewhat consistent with national honor. In February of 
1783, Lord Shelbourne being prime-minister, a treaty was con- 
cluded at Paris, between England and the United States of Ame- 
rica, which henceforth ranked as one of the independent powers 
of the world. 

There was one event during the war which caused a very deep 
feeling of resentment on the part of the English. This was the 
execution of Major Andre, a young British officer, who was taken 
within the American lines, and, not being in his uniform, he was 
tried on the charge of being a spy, and was hung. 

In order to complete the narrative of the contest with America, 
we have brought the reader down to the year 1783, and, there- 
fore, must now retrace our steps a little to examine some im- 
portant events of an earlier date. 

In 1778, some mitigation took place in the severity of the laws 
against Catholics in England, but the feelings of Effort3 to repe ai 
the Scottish people were so strong against Catho- JJJTa&SfaE 
licity, that riots occurred in Edinburgh on the sub- ™ts, Re- 
ject of religion, and the relaxation of the penal code was not ex- 
tended to Scotland. A society, called the Protestant Association, 
was formed in England, for the purpose of endeavoring to cause 
the repeal of the recent act in favor of the Catholics. At the 
head of this confederacy was Lord George Gordon, a son of the 
duke of Gordon, and a member of the house of commons. A 
large mob assembled in St. George's Fields, near London, in June, 
1780, to accompany Lord George Gordon to the house of com- 
mons with a petition for the repeal of the tolerating statute, which 



624 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1780 



in their bigotry they condemned. The petition was rejected, and 
the mob proceeded to destroy the Catholic churches in the metro- 
polis, and the houses not only of Catholics, but of those who were 
friendly to toleration. On this occasion the library of Lord 
Chief-justice Mansfield was sacrificed to the fury of the mob, who 
proceeded to attack Newgate and other prisons, to liberate those 
who were confined in them. For several days the rioters had 
possession of the greater portion of London, but at length they 
were put down by the military, whom the king had ordered out, 
and several were killed. Many were tried and executed. Lord 
George Gordon was tried for high-treason, but was acquitted on 
the ground of insanity. He was afterward, however, imprisoned 
for libel, and died in jail. 

The events which occurred in Ireland, during the period of 
which we have been writing, were of great national importance. 

Affairs in ire- ^ n 1779, by the exertions of Flood, Grattan, and 
land - other popular leaders, the commercial restrictions 

which had interfered with the trade of Ireland were removed. A 
powerful military association, the Irish Volunteers, had been 
formed, under the command of the duke of Leinster, for the de- 
fence of the kingdom from the threatened invasion of the French. 
The Volunteers soon turned their attention to the questions which 
had long been the sources of difference between their country and 
Great Britain. They first obtained free trade, and in 1782 
they gained the recognition by England of the parliamentary in- 
dependence of Ireland. The details of this great national move- 
ment belong to the history of Ireland, and would be unsuited to 
the pages of this volume, even did our allotted limits permit. 

During the early part of the reign of George III., manufactures 
began to excite much national attention. James Watt, a Scotch- 
man, so much improved the steam-engine that he is almost en- 
titled to the honor of the discovery of this great instrument of 
social amelioration. The spinning-jenny was invented by James 
Hargreaves, and afterward the spinning-frame by Arkright. At 
this period, Captain Cook, the navigator, made several geographi- 
cal discoveries. Many of the best authors in the English lan- 
guage wrote at this period, among whom were Edmund Burke, 
Johnson, Goldsmith, Cowper, and others. Several painters of 



GEORGE THE THIRD. 



625 



1783 A. D.] 

eminence gave an impetus to the fine arts, the principal of whom 
were Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Barry, the latter a native of 

Cork. , . , ' 

Lord Shelbourne was prime-minister at the time when the 
independence of America was acknowledged; he having been 
filled to that post on the death of Lord Rocking- Lord Sheiboarae 

^ u ^ r , . . v „„.».„ prime-minister. 

ham. As, however, his views on some subjects 
differed widely from those of several members of the whig party, 
Fox and others resigned; and it was on this occasion that the 
younger Pitt first entered official life, being appointed chancellor 
of the exchequer, (though only twenty-two,) on account of the 
talents which he had displayed in the house of commons. 
Lord Shelbourne was censured by parliament for having made 
peace with France and Spain on worse terms than were neces- 
sary, and he resigned. In the April of 1783, the Coalition minis- 
try was formed, of which the duke of Portland was the head. 
Fox and North, though for a long time so violently opposed, had 
joined their forces in opposition, and now they became colleagues 
in office, each taking the place of one of the secretaries of state. 
Pitt was succeeded in the post of chancellor of the exchequer 
by Lord George Cavendish; the first lord of the admiralty being 
Keppel, an admiral, who, some years before this, had been tried 
by court-martial for not having with sufficient boldness encoun- 
tered the French at sea, of which charge, however, he was ho- 
norably acquitted. . 

It was in 1782 that the French and Spaniards besieged Gi- 
braltar. The attack was made from the sea by forty-eight ships 
of the line, and by several floating batteries; while D efence of Gi . 
at the same time a large force— which had long braltar - 
besieged the place— assailed the fortress from the land. The 
place was defended with great courage by General Elliott, the 
governor, and the troops under his command, and the enemy was 

The Coalition ministry was destined to be but of short dura- 
tion In the November of 1783, Fox introduced a bill placing 
the government of India under the control of seven directors, 
chosen by the house of commons. This measure was much dis- 
liked by the king, who even interfered personally, by P""*"* 
and threats, to prevent it from passing into a law. The bill, 

53 



626 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1783. 



however, passed the house of commons, but was lost in the house 
of lords, and the king sent orders to the ministers to deliver up 
the seals of office, and added, that he did not wish for a personal 
interview. He immediately appointed Pitt prime-minister, in 
which position he continued, without intermission, for eighteen 
years. 

Pitt commenced his administration under the disadvantage of 
being opposed in parliament by a considerable majority, composed 

Pitt prime-min- °f tne followers of Fox and North. The minister 
ister - was frequently defeated, but as he possessed the 

favor of the king, and was popular with the nation, he remained 
in office. At last, the strength of the opposition began to de- 
crease, and the king dissolved parliament. The new house proved 
favorable to ministers, who thenceforth possessed considerable 
power. They now proposed, and carried, an India bill, and a 
bill to restore the Scotch estates forfeited by the transactions of 
1745. 

In 1785, Pitt introduced a measure for parliamentary reform, 
but it was defeated. In 1786 the sinking-fund was established, 
which was a plan for laying aside any surplus revenue which 
there might be each year, and, placing the same out at interest, 
the entire to be afterward applied toward the reduction of the na- 
tional debt. This course was adopted for several years, but was 
ultimately abandoned as being financially unsound. In the same 
year, an insane woman, named Margaret Nicholson, made an un- 
successful attempt to assassinate the king. She was sent to Beth- 
lehem lunatic asylum, to be kept in restraint. 

At this period the personal affairs of the prince of Wales, now 
twenty -four years of age, excited much attention. His extrava- 
gance caused him to incur a large amount of debt, 
which was paid by parliament. He married a Ca- 
tholic lady, named Fitzherbert, which was contrary to the royal 
marriage act. He stooped to the denial (through Fox, who was 
ignorant of the truth) of the marriage, but there is no doubt 
that it took place. A work recently published by Lord Holland, 
places the matter beyond any question. The prince of Wales 
attached himself in politics to the party of which Fox was the 
leader. 

Certain subjects respecting the trade between England and 



1788 A. D.] GEORGE THE THIRD. 627 

Ireland occupied the attention of both kingdoms at this time. 
Pitt introduced a measure, purporting to establish commercial re- 
ciprocity between the countries. The plan did not meet with 
the approbation of the popular leaders in Ireland. Flood and 
Grattan opposed it as being injurious to their country, and it was 
abandoned. Having mentioned the name of Flood again, it may 
be proper here to state that he was, from 1783 to his death, 1791, 
a member of the British house of commons as well as of the Irish. 
He spoke, however, very seldom in England. 

In 1786, Warren Hastings was impeached by the house of 
commons for " high crimes and misdemeanors," alleged to have 
been committed by him as governor-general of In- Warren Hast- 
dia. The leader in the prosecution was Edmund tags impeached. 
Burke, with whom were associated Fox, Sheridan, and other dis- 
tinguished members of the house. Pitt was at first inclined to 
defend Hastings, but was forced by public opinion to join in the 
impeachment, The speeches delivered by the managers in open- 
ing the charges are among the most eloquent in the English lan- 
guage. The trial took place before the peers, in Westminster 
Hall, and was conducted with great pomp and solemnity. The 
proceedings lasted for seven years, and terminated in the acquit- 
tal of Hastings. 

In 1787 the first attempt was made to mitigate the horrors of 
the slave trade. The act, which was passed during this session, 
only went so far as to prevent the overcrowding of slave-ships. 
Strange to say, even this partial alleviation of human suffering 
met with opposition. The bill was, however, passed into law, 
and forms the first chapter of that code which the exertions of 
Clarkson, Wilberforce, and other friends of the rights of the 
negro, placed upon the statute-book. It is pleasing to reflect, 
that on this great topic (though differing somewhat in its details) 
Pitt and Fox merged the disputes of party, and The slave trade 
joined in reprobating the slave system. Consider- 
able impetus was given to the agitation of the subject by a trial 
which took place in Westminster Hall, in which a negro, who 
had come to England, was claimed as property, and the claim was 
disallowed. 

In 1788, George III. became deranged in his intellects, and it 
became necessary that some other person should exercise royal 



628 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 171 



Geo^e becomes authority. The course most consistent with the 
deranged, constitution seemed, that the prince of Wales 

should be invested with the regency; but Pitt feared that such a 
step would cause his own expulsion from office, as Fox was the 
friend and companion of the prince. Accordingly, when the 
subject came became parliament, violent debates took place; and, 
as the Irish parliament adopted Fox's view, which was, that the 
prince (to whom Pitt would only give a limited regency) should 
have supreme power, the difficulty of the question was getting 
very complicated, when the king suddenly recovered, and the 
consideration of the subject was postponed to a period twenty- 
two years later. Most constitutional writers agree that the 
course proposed by Fox, Burke, and by the Irish parliament, and 
which was adopted in 1811, was the more correct. 

The French revolution, the war in India, and the trou- 
bled state of Ireland must occupy our attention in examin- 
ing the close of the last century; and we will endeavor in the 
next section to place before the reader the most prominent points, 
as far as these subjects are connected with the history of Eng- 
land. 

The French revolution commenced in 1789; but that event, 
though from the beginning the subject of close attention in 
Great Britain, did not involve England till 1792. In that year, 
the feeling became very general in England that France should 
be restrained in her revolutionary career, especially as she offered 
aid to all the discontented nations. Edmund Burke was promi- 
nent in the expression of these sentiments, both in pamphlets 
and in speeches; and it was a diiference of opinion on the 
French revolution which caused a separation between him and 
Fox. The latter statesman and Sheridan were opposed to war; 
but the general voice of the nation seems to have been against 
them. Early in 1793 the execution of the French king hurried 

England joins matters forward, and Pitt soon announced that 
France. England had formed alliances with the leading 

powers of Northern Europe, and was about to enter on war with 
France. 

In England, some parties showed an anxiety to avail them- 
selves of the interest which the French revolution had given to 
the question of parliamentary reform, and several motions were 



1795 A. D.] GEORGE THE THIRD. 629 

made in parliament on the subject. But Pitt was now opposed 
to any measure of the kind, and the reformers made no progress 
in the house. A prosecution was set on foot against a person 
named Hardy, and some other members of one of the reform so- 
cieties; but they were defended with great eloquence by Erskine, 
and acquitted. In Scotland, however, the government obtained 
verdicts against Mr. Muir, a barrister, and Mr. Palmer, an Uni- 
tarian clergyman, and they were banished. In Birmingham, the 
feeling against French principles was so strong that the mob 
destroyed the library of Dr. Priestley, who had written in defence 
of the revolution. The cruelty shown by the French to the 
clergy, many of whom fled for refuge to England, added consi- 
derably to the general feeling. 

In India, war had been prosecuted for several years against 
Tippoo Saib, (son of the well-known Hyder Aly,) one of the 
principal of the native princes. About this period a treaty was 
concluded by Lord Cornwallis at Seringapatam, the capital of My- 
sore. 

The war against France began in Holland, the duke of York 
taking the command. At first the French sustained some re- 
verses; but they subsequently succeeded in driving the English 
army out of the Netherlands. The allies gave by progregg of war 
no means that co-operation which England had against France, 
expected, though she paid a large portion of their expenses. 
At sea, England maintained her supremacy. Lord Howe de- 
feated the French fleet near Brest, several of the colonial posses- 
sions of France were taken, and the French commercial shipping 
sustained severe losses. 

In 1795 the people of England began to show symptoms of an 
inclination for peace, and displayed a strong feeling against the 
ministers who continued to prosecute the war. The king became 
less popular, and, on one occasion, his carriage was attacked. 
Negotiations were entered on, but they were broken off, because 
France insisted on retaining Belgium. It was N apo ieon Bona- 
about this period that Napoleon Bonaparte, a na- P arte - 
tive of Corsica, began to be distinguished. In 1793 he had served 
at the siege of Toulon, a French city, which, for a considerable 
time, resisted the republican arms. His abilities soon made him 
conspicuous, and, in 1796, he led the army of the republic into 

53* 



630 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1795. 



Northern Italy, which he conquered from Austria ; with which 
power he entered into a treaty known as the treaty of Campo 
Formio. Austria was thus drawn from the alliance with England, 
whose difficulties were at the same time increased by a declara- 
tion of war against her by Spain. 

In 1795 the prince of Wales married his cousin, the Princess 
Caroline, daughter of the duke of Brunswick, which marriage 
afterward led to unhappiness between the parties themselves, and 
to long-continued public excitement. An addition was made to 
the income of the prince of Wales, and an arrangement entered 
into for the payment of his debts. The Princess Charlotte, 
daughter of the prince and princess of Wales, was born in 
1796. 

Early in 1797 the opinion rapidly gained ground that France 
would invade England, and every political feeling was for the 
invasion of Eng- ^ me merged in the determination to defend the 
land anticipated, country. A run on the bank of England took 
place; cash payments wex*e, by leave of the privy council, sus- 
pended, and were not resumed for many years. To add to the 
excitement of the public mind, mutiny took place on board the 
fleet in the channel. Government granted the requests of the 
sailors. The seamen at the Nore then made demands as to pay 
and other matters, which were refused as being deemed unreason- 
able, whereupon they moored their vessels across the Thames in 
order to check commerce. Government did not yield, but took 
strong measures. In a short time the mutineers submitted ; and 
Parker and several other ringleaders were executed. 

The English obtained numerous victories at sea in 1797. It 
was in this year that Admiral Jervis and Commodore Nelson de- 
feated the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent, and that Admiral 
Duncan attacked with success the Dutch fleet near Camperdown, 
on the coast of Holland, and took many of the enemy's ships. 

In 1798 the French Directory (anxious to be rid of the pre- 
sence of a popular general) sent Napoleon at the head of an ex- 
pedition to Egypt, for the purpose of commencing an attack on 
Napoleon sent to British power in the East Indies. Napoleon pro- 
Egypt- ceeded through the Mediterranean, and, having 
taken Malta, he passed over to Egypt, where he landed his troops. 
Nelson, however, attacked the fleet on the 1st August, at one of 



GEORGE THE THIRD. 631 



the mouths of the Nile, and gained one of the most complete 
naval victories on record. Napoleon was stopped in his eastern 
career by Sir Sydney Smith, who forced the French to retreat from 
St. Jean d'Acre. Napoleon soon left his army, and returned to 
France; for he considered that the time had come for a change in 
the form of the government of that country, as the Directory had 
begun to show considerable incapacity. He soon placed himself 
at the head of affairs under the title of First Consul, and offered 
to make peace with England ; but, as she demanded the restoration 
of the French monarchy, the negotiations did not succeed. He 
then turned his attention to win back from the northern powers 
several conquests which they had made in Italy during his absence 
from Europe. 

In 1799, the duke of York again commanded an army which 
landed in Holland to oppose the French, but was again unsuccess- 
ful in his military operations, and soon returned to Battle of Alex- 
England. In Egypt, Sir Sydney Smith made a andria - 
treaty with the French generals, agreeing that the French army 
should leave Egypt without being molested. Ministers, however, 
refused to ratify this treaty and hostilities were resumed in Egypt, 
in which France gained the advantage. In the following year, 
General Abercromby was sent out with an army, and gained an 
important battle near Alexandria. Abercromby, however, was 
killed, and his successor in command, General Hutchinson, soon 
entered into a treaty with the French, who were permitted to re- 
turn to France. 

While the French were in Egypt, Napoleon communicated his 
plans to Tippoo Saib, who prepared to attack the English in India. 
General Harris besieged Seringapatam, which was 
taken by storm. Tippoo Saib was killed during 
the assault, and his vast treasures fell into the hands of the 
English. Lord Mornington (afterwards marquis of Welles- 
ley) was at this time governor of India, and his younger brother, 
afterwards the duke of Wellington, fought at the siege of Serin- 
gapatam. 

Napoleon, having by military successes, unsurpassed in history, 
not only regained what France had lost, but added largely to her 
conquests, England found that French influence was becoming so 
formidable in the north of Europe that some step should be taken 



632 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1801. 



to protect English commerce. A fleet was accordingly sent 
under Sir Hyde Parker and Nelson, to attack the Danes, and s 
severe contest took place off Copenhagen. After a battle of seve- 
ral hours' duration an armistice was agreed upon. On the death 
of Paul, emperor of Russia, who was assassinated in 1801, Eng- 
land entered into a treaty with several of the northern powers. 

At this time Napoleon was making great preparations for the 
invasion of England, and collected a large fleet at Boulogne. 

Napoleon pre- Lord Nelson was sent to attack th^s fleet, but 
England. having destroyed several vessels he desisted, as 

his loss was becoming considerable. Discontent at the con- 
tinuation of hostilities was now very general in both countries, 
and preparations for peace were commenced. Pitt was not in- 
clined to be a party to the treaty, and he resigned. The king 
refused to grant emancipation, which Pitt had promised to the 
Catholics of Ireland, and this was the alleged cause of his resig- 
nation ; but the real cause was his aversion to being the medium of 
making peace with France. Mr. Addington became minister, and, 
in 1801, a treaty recognising Napoleon as First Consul was entered 
upon, which was definitively signed at Amiens in March, 1802. 

In 1801, a man named Hatfield shot at George III. in the 
theatre. Being insane, he was not put to death, but placed in a 
madhouse. 

In Ireland, during the period we have been describing, events 
of considerable national importance occurred. It had unfortu- 

ireiand at this na t c ty happened, that the settlement of the politi- 
period. cal affairs of that country, in 1782, did not include 

Catholic emancipation or parliamentary reform ; and accordingly 
a great deal of popular discontent arose. The French revolution, 
by causing a wide spread feeling in favor of extensive changes in 
political arrangements, aroused in Ireland the hope of a speedy ad- 
justment of grievances. In 1791, a society was formed, called 
"The United Irishmen," for the purpose of seeking to obtain a 
reform of the legislature, and for a time this society (though 
strong language was spoken at its meetings) kept within the limits 
of the law. In 1793, several concessions were made to the Catho- 
lics, the most important of which were, the right to vote at parlia- 
mentary elections, to practise at the bar, and to take the degree 
of Bachelor of xVrts in the University of Dublin. 



1801 A. D.] GEORGE THE THIRD. 633 



In 1794, an active correspondence took place between the French 
government and the United Irishmen, which, as France had been 
victorious wherever she could land her troops, caused so much 
alarm in England, that Lord Fitzwilliam was sent over as viceroy 
with instructions to make further concessions to the Catholics. 
So great, however, was the influence of the Irish Protestants over 
Pitt, that they persuaded him to recall Lord Fitzwilliam and to 
appoint Lord Camden, a nobleman of very different views. The 
United Irishmen exasperated by this course of action, prosecuted 
with vigor their correspondence with France, and, in December, 
1796, a French fleet having troops on board, commanded by 
General Hoche, arrived in Bantry Bay in the south of Ireland. 
There was not, however, any co-operation on the part of the Irish 
people, preparations not having been made, and the French fleet 
returned to France. 

In 1797, no forces were sent by the French to Ireland, as their 
fleet met with so severe a defeat at Camperdown. The Irish peo- 
ple suffered great hardships during this period, from the circum- 
stance of soldiers being sent to various districts, and quartered on 
the inhabitants without payment. Any murmur against this 
treatment was visited with the most cruel punish- The Irish lead . 
ments, and in many cases with death. The en- crs betrayed. 
rolling of members of the society of United Irishmen went on 
with activity until March, 1798, when several of the leaders were 
arrested in Dublin, having been betrayed by one of their own 
sworn confederates named Thomas Reynolds. Several were exe- 
cuted, but the United Irishmen did not abandon their intention 
of rising, and a general insurrection took place on the 23d May, 
1798. 

Lord Cornwallis was now viceroy ; for, when the state of the 
country assumed a warlike aspect, Lord Camden (a civilian) sug- 
gested that a nobleman accustomed to military affairs should be 
sent over. Lord Edward Fitzgerald was arrested, and, being 
mortally wounded in the attempt to take him prisoner, soon died 
in jail. Still, such was the confidence of the United Irishmen in 
their resources that they rose in various parts of the The insurrection 
country, and in some counties with considerable breaks out. 
temporary success. Their principal advantages were obtained in 
Wexford : on the 20th June, they were defeated at a place called 
2 P 



634 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1801. 

Vinegar Hill, in that county, by General Lake, and the insur 
rection was soon considered to be at an end. 

In the August of the same year, General Humbert landed with 
900 French soldiers at Killala, on the west coast of Ireland, and 
obtained the superiority in an engagement with General Lake, 
near Castlebar. They advanced into the country, but, at a place 
called Ballinamuck, they were met by a very large force under 
Lord Cornwallis, and surrendered. The French were treated as 
prisoners of war, but many of the Irish who joined them were 
executed. An amnesty was, however, soon proclaimed, and the 
country saw the termination of one of the most sanguinary strug- 
gles in the history of these islands. There is no doubt that it 
sprang from misgovernment; but it is the painful duty of an im- 
partial writer to state, that, during the insurrection, both sides 
perpetrated fearful cruelties, with the details of which we shall 
not stain these pages. 

In 1799, ministers proposed a Legislative Union with Ireland; 
but, such was the force of popular feeling in the latter county, 
The Legislative that the measure was defeated. It was, however, 
Uniou - passed into law in 1800, by the extensive use of 

the open and undisguised bribery of the members of the Irish 
parliament. The bill was opposed in Ireland by Grattan, Plunket, 
Bushe, and many other eloquent men ; and in England by Fox, 
Sheridan, Grey, and other leading senators. The opposition, 
however, to the measure failed, and on the 1st January, 1801, 
the act came into operation, by force of which the Irish parlia- 
ment ceased to exist, and the two islands acquired the name of 
" The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland." 

The peace between France and England was of very short 
duration. The resumption of hostilities was caused by the refusal 
of England to give up Malta, which she had taken in 1800, and 
which by the treaty was to have been surrendered to the Knights 
of St. John. England objected to carry out this part of the treaty 
because, in her opinion, it would be dangerous to abandon Malta 
till France had complied with certain disputed demands. War 
was therefore resumed in May, 1803. 

In 1802, a conspiracy against the life of the king had been 
discovered in London, the principal conspirator being a captain 



1804. A. D.] GEORGE THE THIRD. 635 



Despard, who with six associates was tried on the charge of high 
treason, found guilty, and executed. 

In 1803, an insurrection was planned in Ireland under the 
leadership of Robert Emrnett. It broke out in a new insurrec- 
the streets of Dublin in July, and the chief jus- Emmett 
tice, Lord Kilwarden, was murdered. His nephew and daughter 
were with him, of whom the former was killed, but the latter was 
permitted to escape. The military dispersed the insurgents, and 
Emmett, with the other leaders, was tried and executed. Emrnett 
was a young man of talent, and possessed many good qualities, so 
that the early death to which his fatal rashness led, excited the 
regret even of many who were opposed to his views. He was not 
a party to the murder of Lord Kilwarden (those who perpetrated 
that act being beyond his control) ; but he did not deny that he 
had conspired against the government. 

The war recommenced in 1803, England as usual obtaining 
important advantages at sea, and France on land. Napoleon 
made extensive preparations for the invasion of England, which 
roused the nation to such a state of excitement that all classes 
united their efforts to prepare for the defence of the country. 
The fleet under Nelson guarded the coasts, and Napoleon did not 
carry his designs into execution. 

In 1804, Napoleon became emperor of the French. His suc- 
cesses on the continent are not equalled in history ; but the detail 
of them does not belong to these pages. It is sufficient for our 
purpose to state, that possessing a wonderful military genius he 
overthrew the armies of Austria and Prussia, dictated terms to 
Russia, and, in short, placed all Europe, with the exception of 
England, at his feet. 

Pitt returned to office in 1804, and remained minister till his 
death, in 1806. His efforts to check the progress 

. ' . , , .. . , -r. i , Death of Pitt 

of Napoleon led to a coalition between England 
and several of the continental powers. But the arms of France 
triumphed throughout Europe. The defeat of the Austrians at 
Ulm, of the Prussians at Jena, and of the combined forces of 
Russia and Austria at Austerlitz, broke up the coalition, made 
Napoleon dictator of Europe, and preyed so much on the mind 
of Pitt that his health gave way, and he died in January, 1806. 
He was only forty-seven years of age, but his frame was exhausted 



636 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1807 



by the toils of official life, he having been a minister for nearly 
the entire of his adult years. 

In 1805, Lord Melville (formerly Mr. Dundas,) one of the 
ministers, was impeached for malpractices in his office at the Ad- 
miralty. He was acquitted of the charge of appropriating the 
public money, but was not cleared of that of conniving with some 
of his subordinates in temporarily falsifying the public accounts. 

While throughout the continent of Europe the arms of France 
were triumphant, she sustained some severe reverses at sea. On 
Battle of Trafai- tue 21st October, 1805, Nelson fought the cele- 
e ar - brated battle of Trafalgar, off the Spanish coast, 

and defeated the combined fleets of France and Spain. In this 
battle Nelson was killed. His remains were brought to England, 
and honored with a public funeral at St. Paul's. The navies 
of France and Spain were almost completely destroyed in this 
memorable action. 

Pitt's administration was succeeded by a ministry of which 
Lord Grenville was the head, and Fox and Sheridan members. 
It also contained several other eminent men, and was called the 
ministry of "All the Talents." During this administration, the 
slave trade was abolished, and a measure friendly to the Catholic 
claims was introduced. The king would not consent to the latter; 
and as the ministry, though they withdrew the bill, refused to 
comply with the request of the sovereign that they would promise 
never to propose it again, they were obliged to resign and were 
succeeded [25th March, 1807,] by the duke of Portland at the 
head of a tory administration. Fox had died in 
the previous autumn, having, like his distinguished 
rival Pitt, sunk under the toil and anxiety of party conflicts. 

In the north of Europe, Napoleon continued to prosecute war 
and to subjugate any nation which sought to oppose his sway. In 
1807, he entered into a treaty, at a place called Tilsit with Russia, 
by which that country agreed to become his ally and to act on 
certain proclamations known as the " Berlin Decrees," which 
Napoleon, when in Prussia, had issued from the capital of that 
kingdom, and which had for their object the exclusion of British 
commerce from the continental ports. 

The treaty of Tilsit caused England to fear that all the northern 
nations would be drawn into a similar acquiescence in the Berlin 



1809. A. D.] GEORGE THE THIRD. C37 



Decrees, and, accordingly, ministers resolved to deprive one at 
least of those nations of the power of doing injury. The tre , of 
"With this view a fleet was sent to Copenhagen to Tilsit - 
seize and bring to England the Danish fleet (though Denmark 
was neutral), lest it should be engaged to forward at sea the de- 
signs of France. This event had the effect of injuring the 
character of England on the continent, and of thus lessening 
her moral power. 

In 1808, the Peninsular war commenced, and from this year, 
may, therefore, be dated the commencement of Napoleon's fall. 
His insatiable ambition had roused against him the 
anger of humbled nations ; and in Spain that spark 
was first struck which, being kindled into a flame, finally con- 
sumed his power. Having compelled the Spanish royal family to 
abdicate, he placed his brother Joseph upon their throne, which 
so incensed the people of Spain that they rose against the new 
king, and he fled from Madrid. England saw that an opportunity 
had at length arisen on the continent which might be turned to 
profitable account, and accordingly a treaty was entered into, in 
consequence of which an army was sent to the Peninsula, in 1808, 
under Sir Arthur Wellesley, afterwards duke of Wellington. 

The first battle which Wellesley fought was with Marshal 
Junot, whom he repulsed on the 21st August, 1808, at Vimiera, 
in Portugal, of which country the French were masters. A con- 
vention took place, at a place called Cintra, and the French were 
permitted to sail for France in British ships. This convention 
was most unpopular in England, where it was considered that no 
time should have been lost in pushing on into the country after 
the success at Vimiera, and the English generals were recalled. 
As Wellesley had advised the prompt course, his recall has always 
been considered unfair ; but he had enemies who influenced those 
who recalled him. 

Sir John Moore was sent out to take the command of the army, 
but the French now had time to pour fresh troops into Spain. 
Napoleon came from Paris without delay, and Death of Sir John 
Moore learning that the emperor was advancing Moore - 
against him with 40,000 men, retreated with difficulty from Sala- 
manca to Corunna, on the north-west coast. Marshal Soult with 

the French followed him, and after a severe battle, 16th January, 

54 



638 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1810. 



1809, in which Moore was killed, the British troops succeeded ic 
embarking, and thus terminated the first act of the eventful drama 
of which the Peninsula was the scene. 

In 1809, the English government being anxious to secure the 
navigation of the river Scheldt, sent 100,000 men to Holland, 
under the command of the earl of Chatham (elder brother of the 
deceased William Pitt), who was quite unacquainted with war. 
The expedition was attended with disaster, for the troops were 
landed on a most unhealthy island, Walcheren, where great 
numbers perished by disease. The remainder returned to Eng- 
land without accomplishing their object, and the entire matter 
became the subject of much angry discussion in parliament. 

A duel took place in this year between Lord Castlereagh 
and Mr. Canning, in consequence of some ministerial disputes. 
Neither party was wounded, but both resigned office. Mr. Perce- 
val became prime minister, and the Marquis of Wellesley secre- 
tary for foreign affairs. 

In 1810, a Mr. Jones was imprisoned for publishing an attack 
on the House of Commons, which course was condemned by Sir 
Francis Burclett as illegal, for which he was committed to the 
tower for the session. His arrest had to be accomplished by mili- 
tary force. Great excitement took place in London in consequence 
of these events, which caused political animosities to become very 
violent. 

Towards the end of 1810, the king lost his reason, an event 
which was hastened by grief for the death of his favorite daughter 
The Kin" loses Amelia. The prince of Wales was appointed 
Lis reason. regent with limited powers, which limitation wa3 

to cease if the king did not recover in 1812. As the monarch's 
recovery did not take place, the prince became regent with full 
sovereign power; and, therefore, though the king lived till 1820, 
yet, as far as relates to his personal responsibility, with the year 
1810 terminated the reign of George III. 

We must retrace a little, in order to record the progress of 

affairs in the Peninsula, whither an army under Sir Arthur Wel- 

The success of lesley was sent in 1809, in order to make another 

Wellington in . . c at 1 1 

Spain. effort against the power of JNapoleon, who was at 

that time in Austria, making arrangements for a marriage with 
the daughter of the emperor, for he had divorced his wife 



1811. A. D.] GEORGE THE THIRD. 639 



Josephine. The French army under Soult was driven out of 
Portugal by Wellesley, who rapidly advanced towards Madrid. 
He was attacked by King Joseph and Marshal Victor at Tdlavera, 
in July, 1809, and gained the advantage. His loss, however, was 
so great that he retreated into Portugal. England welcomed with 
enthusiasm the intelligence of the success of Wellesley, who was 
elevated to the peerage by the title of Wellington. 

In 1810, Marshal Massena led the French troops against Wel- 
lington. Several important places fell before the army of France ; 
but in September, Massena received a severe repulse on the 
heights of Busaco, where he attacked Wellington. After this 
engagement the English retired to a strongly fortified position at 
Torres Vedras, and the French retreated to winter quarters. 

In 1811, hostilities continued with vigour and with varied suc- 
cess. General Beresford gained an important victory over Soult, 
at Albuera; but Wellington failed in his attack on Badajos. In 
1812, Wellington took by storm Ciudad Koderigo and Badajos, 
and having gained a hard fought battle over Marshal Marmont, 
at Salamanea, he took possession of Madrid. Hearing, however, 
that an immense force was approaching, he retired for the winter 
towards Portugal. 

In 1813, Wellington continued to triumph in Spain. On the 
27th June he gained an important victory over Marshal Jourdan, 
at Vittoria; and, after a few months more of hard fighting, he led 
his victorious army over the Pyrenees, and planted the standard 
of the United Kingdom in France. 

While Wellington was overthrowing the power of Napoleon in 
the south of Europe, events were occurring in the north which 
tended to the same result. In 1812, Alexander, emperor of 
Russia, began to act in opposition to the decrees Napoleon inva d es 
against British merchandise, and thus provoked Russia - 
Napoleon to hostilities. He advanced against Russia with half a 
million of troops, and, having gained some important advantages, 
he entered Moscow. The Russians, however, destroyed that city 
by fire in order to deprive the French army of shelter, and Napo- 
leon was compelled, in October, to commence his march to the 
south. During this march, nearly three-quarters of his army 
perished in the snow. 

Resolved, however, still to try to keep Europe in subjugation to 



640 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1814. 

him, he hastened to Paris ; and, having reinforced his army, he 
advanced again to the north in order to oppose the emperor of 
Russia, who, being now joined by the king of Prussia, threatened 
to invade France. Such, however, was still the dread which the 
northern powers entertained of Napoleon's power, that they 
offered to conclude a treaty with him if he would consent to re- 
store what he had conquered since 1805. He refused, and his 
father-indaw, the emperor of Austria, joined the allies, whose 
army was now nearly half a million, while that of Napoleon did 
not exceed three hundred thousand. Several engagements took 
place, but the most important was the battle of Leipsic (18th 
October, 1813), in which Napoleon was defeated with the loss of 
nearly 40,000 men. Napoleon again recruited his army, but he 
could not withstand the overwhelming numbers of the allies, who, 
with an immense force, entered France in January, 

Frtmco iiiY'uleil. 

1814. They still offered to allow Napoleon to re- 
main sovereign of France, as it was before the Revolution, but he 
refused, and the allies soon entered Paris. 

No time was lost in making arrangements for the government 
of France. Napoleon was declared to be no longer sovereign of 
that country. The Sovereignty of the island of Elba in the 
Mediterranean was granted him with a large annual allowance. 
He soon left France for his little kingdom, and the Bourbons 
again mounted the French throne. It was in 1814, just before 
peace, that the battle of Toulouse was fought between the French 
and English, but without important result to either army. 

While in the old world Napoleon was hastening to his fall, the 
new world was the scene of a war between England and America, 
war with Ame- which arose from a claim put forward by the 
rica - former, to search the ships of the latter to find 

English sailors, and also from certain " Orders in Council" by 
which England sought to compensate for the Berlin Decrees to 
the injury of the trade of neutral nations. These orders were 
revoked, but America persisted through a sense of having suffered 
wrong. Several engagements took place with different success, 
in the last of which (that near New Orleans) the Americans ob- 
tained a complete victory. A sea-fight took place during this war 
off Boston, in which the American ship Chesajicake was beaten 
and taken by an English ship, the Shannon. In 1814, peace 



1814 A. D.] GEORGE THE THIRD. 641 

■was signed between America and England, a peace which, though 
sometimes threatened to be interrupted, has now remained un- 
broken for forty years. 

In May, 1812, Mr. Perceval, the prime minister, was shot in 
the lobby of the House of Commons by a man Death of the 
named Bellingham, who was executed in a few prime minister, 
days, but of whose insanity the clearest proofs were afterwards 
brought forward. Lord Liverpool became prime minister soon 
after this event. Great discontent prevailed throughout the nation 
at this period, for a considerable depression in manufactures had 
been caused by the obstruction of the commerce of neutral states. 
The aristocratic constitution of parliament excited much discus- 
sion, and a reform bill was loudly demanded. The prince regent 
was unpopular for his conduct in seeking to fasten a charge of 
criminal conduct upon his consort, from whom he was separated, 
which was the theme of the disapprobation of all but the mere 
flatterers of the court. In Ireland, the Catholics were organizing 
committees for the purpose of strengthening their cause. Prose- 
cutions took place against certain parties who had been elected as 
delegates to central Catholic boards. In the first of these the 
government failed; but succeeded in the second, principally, as 
has been proved, by the packing of the jury who tried the case. 

We must now return to the continent and glance at the start- 
ling events of 1815, when Napoleon re-appeared in France, and, 
having for a moment remounted the imperial throne, sank to the 
condition of being for the rest of his life a captive exile. 

When Napoleon left France for Elba, several of the European 
sovereigns visited England, where they met with a very enthusi- 
astic reception. A grant of £400,000 was voted to Wellington, 
who had already received £100,000. A dukedom and the thanks 
of parliament also rewarded his services. Preparations were then 
made for a congress of the representatives of the congress at Vi- 
various states of Europe, and they accordingly as- enna - 
semblecl at Vienna, in October, 1814, Great Britain being repre- 
sented by Lord Londonderry. 

The arrangment of the several international questions respecting 
boundaries in Europe and the possession of colonies, progressed 
at Vienna till March, 1815, when the congress was thrown into 
confusion by the startling intelligence that Napoleon had escaped 

54* 



642 HISTORY TO ENGLAND. [A. D. 1815. 



Napoleon returns f rom Elba. Such was still the popularity of the 

from Elba. . 1 • «■ 1 

name of Napoleon in France, that in a few days he 
entered Paris in triumph, Louis XVIII. having fled to Ghent. 
Napoleon caused the votes of the nation to be taken by ballot on 
the question of his restoration, and had a million and a half of 
votes, the number against him being less than half a million. 
He raised an immense army with wonderful rapidity and in a 
month was at the head of more than half a million of soldiers. 

No time was lost by England and her continental allies in tak- 
ing steps to prevent Napoleon from maintaining himself in his 
position. Wellington and the Prussian general Blucher, with 
their Russian and Austrian allies, assembled in Belgium and on 
the Upper Rhine a force amounting to nearly a million, and pro- 
claimed war against Napoleon. He appeared in Belgium with 
amazing celerity and, on the 16th June, 1815, compelled the 
Prussians under Blucher to retire before him at Ligny. On the 
same day Marshal Ney encountered, at Quatre Bras, Wellington 
aud the duke of Brunswick, in which engagement the latter lost his 
life. The battle, however, did not result in a decisive victory for 
either army. 

On Sunday the 18th June, 1815, was fought the memorable battle 
of Waterloo (twelve miles from Brussels), which decided the con- 

Battie of water- * es '" Napoleon was anxious to attack Wellington 
lo °- before he was joined by Blucher, and made several 

charges on the British lines which were met with undaunted courage. 
For several hours the British soldiers resisted all the efforts of 
French valor to drive them from their position. At two points, 
Le Haye Sainte and Hougoumont, the slaughter on both sides 
was awful. For some time it seemed doubtful whether the French 
army, or the army of the United Kingdom would succeed ; but 
toward evening uncertainty was terminated by the arrival of 
Blucher, who poured a terrible cannonade on the right flank of the 
French, while the charge of the guards harassed them in front, 
so that they were totally overthrown. The Prussians pursued 
them, and during the flight the French loss was very great. 

Napoleon hastened to Paris but could not maintain himself on 
his throne. The French parliament refused even to agree to his 
resigning in favor of his son (since dead), and he fled to the 
coast and prepared to escape to America. The British men-of- 



1815 A. D.] GEORGE THE THIRD. 643 



war, however, watched him closely, and he surrendered to Captain 
Maitland of the Bellerophon. He was conducted to the coast of 
England, and when he learned that he was to be sent to St. Helena 
as a prisoner for life, he remonstrated against this treatment, for 
he declared that as he had thrown himself on the protection of 
British laws he should not be treated so harshly. His protest 
however, was unavailing, and he was sent to St. Helena, where 
he died in 1821. 

Thus fell Napoleon, one of the most remarkable characters in 
the history of the world. His conduct on several occasions must 
be condemned ; but there is much in his career character of 
which calls for praise. He certainly saved France Napoleon, 
from a renewal of the " Reign of Terror," to which the weakness 
of the Directory was manifestly leading in 1799. He was a mu- 
nificient patron of arts and sciences, and promulgated an excellent 
code of laws. Had his offers of peace been met in the proper 
spirit he would have turned to social ameliorations. But every 
attempt at negotiation was repulsed ; so the world was visited 
with protracted wars, which terminated in placing an enormous 
national debt on England. And yet Napoleon's ashes have been 
borne from their island grave and placed in a French mausoloem. 
Napoleon's dynasty occupies the imperial throne of France, and the 
armies and fleets of France, and of the United Kingdom are 
joined in opposition to that power from which Napoleon first 
received the blow which eventually prostrated him. Such are 
the fluctuations of human affairs. 

When the allied armies entered Paris, they stained their victory 
by the execution of some of Napoleon's generals, and amongst 
them of Marshall Ney whose safety was guaranteed by treaty. 
A statute to Ney has lately been erected in Paris. 

In 1816, a British armament under Lord Exmouth bombarded 
Algiers, and compelled the Dey to enter into a treaty, binding 
himself to avoid the repetition of his cruelties toward prisoners 
taken by his ships. 

In 1817, the Princess Charlotte died, after having given birth to 
a still-born son. She was daughter of the prince of Wales, and 
possessed beauty, virtue, and accomplishments. She had been 
married in 1817 to Prince Leopard, uncle to the. present queen 



644 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1819. 

and now king of the Belgians. The princess was universally re- 
gretted. 

During the closing years of the reign of George III., great 
discontent prevailed throughout England. The corn laws were 

Discontent in enacted, and parliamentary reform was resisted ; 
EDgiand. g0 {hat tumults took place, in one of which, at 

Peterloo near Manchester, several persons were killed by the 
military. In 1819, the bank of England resumed cash payments 
by act of parliament; but, as a great run on the bank took place, 
the payments in gold were suspended again for four years. 

George III. died on the 29th of January, 1820. His queen 
had died in 1819, and his son the duke of Kent, father of Queen 
Victoria, on the 23d January, 1820. The character of George 
III. was strictly moral in all domestic relations, but in public af- 

Character and f a i rs ne committed many faults. His obstinate 
reign of Geo. in. adherence to the laws which excluded Catholics 
from their rights, proves how deeply his mind was tinged with 
intolerant doctrines. His reign was marked with many important 
changes in social life, especially the application of the wonderful 
agencies of steam. In literature, this reign produced many of 
the greatest ornaments in all departments. Byron, Moore, Camp- 
bell, Scott, Southey, Wordsworth, and others in poetry ; Burke, 
1'itt, Fox, Sheridan, O'Connel, Curran, Grattan, Canning, Plun- 
ket, Bushe, and others in oratory ; Davy and others in physical 
science; Dugald Stewart and others in philosophy; Scott in prose 
fiction : all gave a great impetus to the development of mind. 
Painting and sculpture found able representatives in Reynolds, 
Chantrey, Lawrence, Flaxman, and other eminent men. We 
cannot dwell longer on the great names which adorned this reign ; 
but the student will find them more fully set forth in another part 
of our volume. 



1820 A. D.] GEORGE THE FOURTH. 645 



CHAPTER XLIL 

<§mp tl]e $ 0uri|[. 

Accession of George IV — Proceedings against Queen Caroline — Corona- 
tion of the king — He visits Ireland — Revolt in Greece — Catholic 
Emancipation — Death of the king. — From A. D. 1820 to 1830. 

George IV. ascended the throne at a time when intense poli- 
tical excitement pervaded the community. The anxiety of the 
people on the subject of parliamentary reform had led to a wide- 
spread feeling against the aristocracy. The course, however, 
which some who were opposed to ministers adopted, tended rather 
to strengthen than to weaken the government. Shortly after the 
king's accession, a plot to assassinate the ministers was discovered, 
The conspirators, of whom one Thistlewood was the leader, were 
arrested at a house in Cato street, near the Regent's Park, Lon- 
don ; and five, having been convicted of treason, were executed. 
An insurrection took place about the same time near Glasgow, but 
it was soon put down by the military, and some of the insurgents 
suffered the penalty of the law. 

At this period, public attention became absorbed by the differ- 
ences which existed between the king and his consort, Queen 
Caroline. For many years they had lived sepa- Proceedings 
rate ; and she had, in 1816, obtained permission Caroline. 
to travel on the continent. Rumors against her honor were cir- 
culated, and her name was erased from the liturgy. She resolved 
to return to England and confront her accusers, and accordingly 
in June, 1820, she arrived in London, and demanded to be 
treated as queen consort. This was refused by his majesty, who 
laid before parliament documents which related to her conduct 
abroad, and requested the legislature to consider them with care. 

Lord Liverpool, the prime minister, brought forward a " Bill 
of Pains and Penalties," having for its object, to deprive the 
queen of her rights as such, and also to divorce her from the king 



6-16 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1821. 



Witnesses were examined in support of the measure, but such was 
the ability displayed by the counsel for the queen, Messrs. (since 
lords) Brougham and Denman, and so great was the popular feel- 
ing in her favor, that ministers withdrew the bill, a course which 
expediency also pointed out as prudent, for the supporters of the 
measure in parliament decreased at each division. The abandon- 
ment of the bill was of course hailed with exultation by the 
queen's friends, and was approved of by the public in general. 

In 1820, Henry Grattan, who for more than forty years had 
occupied the foremost position as advocate of the emancipation of 
the Catholics and of the rights of his countrymen, 
died in London, whither he had travelled at a very 
advanced period of life for the purpose of recording another vote 
in favor of religious liberty. He was buried in Westminster 
Abbey. As an orator, and as a pure-minded statesman, this dis- 
tinguished Irishman will always be remembered with honor. 

The session of 1821 opened with a motion by another eloquent 
Irishman, the late lord Plunket, in favor of the Catholic claims. 
A bill on this subject passed the Commons, but was lost in the 
Lords. The details, however, of this measure did not please 
the Catholics, as it contained some clauses of a compromising cha- 
racter. 

The coronation of George IV. took place with great spendor in 
July, 1821. The queen made an attempt to enter Westminster 
Coronation of the Abbe y durin g the ceremony, but her entrance was 
kin s- prevented by orders of the king. This circum- 

stance preyed deeply upon her mind, her health sank, and she 
soon died. A great riot took place at her funeral, the people in- 
sisting that it should pass through London. Caroline of Bruns- 
wick has been described by some as a suffering angel, by others 
as a degraded woman who did not receive sufficient punishment. 
The truth, as in most cases, lies between these extremes, and the 
fairest verdict, founded on an examination of the evidence of her 
friends and foes, seems to be, that she was not guilty of the crime 
laid to her charge; but that, partly on account of the customs of 
her country, and partly on account of her natural disposition, to 
which we may add a wish to annoy her persecuting husband, she 
allowed herself to be betrayed on some occasions into conduct the 
levity of which strict morality must in justice blame. 



1824. A. D.] GEORGE THE FOURTH. 647 

Ou the 5th May, 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte died at St. Helena, 
where he had been a prisoner for five years. 

In August, 1821, George IV. visited Ireland, where he was 
well received, being the first English monarch who landed in that 
island as a peaceful visitor. Soon afterwards the George iv. fisita 
king went for a time to Hanover, and in the fol- inland, 
lowing year visited Scotland, where his reception was of a very 
enthusiastic character. While the king was in Scotland, Lord 
Londonderry (formerly Lord Castlereagh) committed suicide at his 
residence in Kent, and was succeeded as foreign secretary by 
George Canning, a great parliamentary orator and a statesman of 
enlightened views. 

This was a period of distress and of much agrarian disturbance 
in Ireland. The people of England showed, by large subscrip- 
tions, a generous sympathy for the suffering Irish, but the severe 
measures which (instead of trying conciliation) parliament, guided 
by Lord Londonderry, had adopted, tended much to increase the 
discontent which prevailed in Ireland. 

In 1822, Mr. Canning, seconded by Mr. Plunket, proposed 
that Catholic peers should sit in parliament. This measure was 
not opposed by Lord Londonderry and passed the Commons, but 
it was rejected by the Lords. 

A good deal of attention was directed at this period to 
Spain, where a struggle took place between the people and the 
king. The latter was aided by France. England, as a govern- 
ment, took no part in the contest, but many Englishmen proceed- 
ed to Spain, as private individuals and fought on the side of the 
people. This course was, however, soon checked by a proclama- 
tion. The Spanish colonies in South America revolted at this 
time, and their independence was acknowledged by England. 

In 1824, Greece revolted against Turkey, and the contest 
excited considerable attention in England. A committee was 
formed in London to aid the Greeks with money. Revolt of Greece. 
Lord Byron, the poet, then abroad, proceeded to Battle of Navarino. 
Greece to render personal assistance, but he was shortly afterwards 
attacked with a fever, and died at Missolonghi. The cause of 
the Greeks met with varied success. It was not till 1827, that 
the European powers interfered to stop the war which raged 
fiercely between the Turks and Greeks. At length it became ap. 



C48 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1827. 

parent that the latter could not, alone, succeed in effecting their 
liberation, and a communication was addressed by England, 
France, and Russia to Turkey, advising a cessation of hostilities. 
This advice was disregarded, and a combined Turkish and Egyp- 
tian fleet assembled in the harbor of Navarino, the intent being to 
sail from that to the Morea, and subdue the Greeks with a large 
force. The English, French, and Russian fleets (the first under 
Admiral Codrington) blockaded that of the Turks at Navarino, 
but did not commence any attack (for war had not been pro- 
claimed against Turkey) until the Turks fired first. A fierce 
battle then took place (18th October, 1827), which, in a few 
hours, ended in the total destruction of the Turkish fleet. Con- 
siderable discussion took place in England about the battle of 
Navarino, which even the next royal speech termed an " untoward 
event ;" but there was a good deal of party spirit involved in the 
dispute. The victory at Navarino, however, saved Greece ; for 
war immediately broke out between Russia and Turkey, and to 
confront her northern enemy, the latter had to withdraw her 
troops from Greece, which soon became, and has since continued 
to be, an independent state. 

During the time of which we have been writing, England was 
the scene of great mercantile speculations, followed by considera- 
ble embarrassments. The duties on almost all goods passing be- 
tween England and Ireland was repealed, and the currency of the 
two countries assimilated. Mr. Huskisson, president of the 
Board of Trade, originated several important mercantile measures. 
Several joint-stock companies were formed, trade was brisk and 
seemed safe. But, in 1825 and 1826, a reaction took place; 
several banks stopped payment, and bankruptcy became very 
general. After some time, however, confidence was restored, and 
the monetary embarrassments of the country passed away. 

In 1826, a treaty was signed between the British in India and 
the Burmese, which terminated a war that had for some time 
been waged in the East. A short time before this, a treaty had 
been concluded between England and the Ashantees, a powerful 
tribe on the coast of Africa. 

In January, 1827, the duke of York died, and the duke of 
Clarence, afterwards William IV. became heir to the throne. 
Lord Liverpool fell ill in the spring of the same year, and soon 



1828 A. D.] GEORGE THE FOURTH. 649 



died. Canning became prime minister, but Wellington, Peel, 
Eldon, and other tories refused to act with him, and, though he 
formed a ministry by the aid of Lords Anglesey, 
Palmerston, and Lyndhurst, his mental anxiety 
was so great that his health gave way, and he died in September, 
1827. Catholics owe much to the memory of Canning, for though 
his views on Emancipation by no means went far enough, yet he 
pioneered the way for the great constitutional victory of 1829. 
He began life as a tory, but gradually shook off partisan views, 
and this liberal tendency alienated those in 1827, who in 1829 
followed his example. He was a classical and elegant orator. 

Lord Goderich (formerly Mr. Eobinson) succeeded Canning, but 
his administration, though, including the duke of Wellington, was 
so weak that he resigned, and the latter became prime minister 
in January, 1828, with Mr. (afterwards Sir Ptobert) Peel as 
Home Secretary. During this administration numerous important 
changes, respecting police and the punishment of offences, were 
brought forward by Mr. Peel. The great glory, however, of this 
administration was the Emancipation of the Catholics ; the con- 
sideration of which subject we have hitherto avoided, in order that 
we might together narrate the agitation of the question and the 
victory with which that agitation was crowned. 

From the commencement of the century the subject of Catholic 
Emancipation had been frequently brought before parliament; 
but. though introduced with the eloquence with catholic emand- 
which Grattan, Plunket, and other friends of P ation - 
liberty of conscience adorned the topic, and though frequently 
seeming to be nearly won, as the majorities against it became 
very small; and though the most gifted writers of the age advo- 
cated the measure in newspapers, reviews, and pamphlets, still the 
obstinacy of tbe crown prevented success. An insidious half- 
measure could have been obtained, but it would have been clogged 
with conditions, giving the English government a veto, or prohi- 
bitory power, in the appointment of Catholic bishops. Some 
Catholics advocated the veto, but the more manly section opposed 
it. The Catholics in Ireland had " boards" and "committees," 
but they could not make a sufficient impression on English 
opinion, and above all on that of the ministry, to effect the de- 
sired change. There was a hope that George IV. would repay 
2Q 55 



650 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1829. 



with religious liberty that too enthusiastic welcome with which 
Ireland greeted him, when his personal safety could not be 
guaranteed in the streets of London. This hope was encouraged 
by the appointment of the marquis of Wellesley to the viceroyalty, 
in 1822, as that nobleman was friendly to the Catholics. 

Liberty of conscience, however, was still obstinately withheld, 
and in 1823-4, the Catholic Association began to develop the 
strength of the Catholics of Ireland. This body was under the 
guidance of Daniel O'Connell, who had long, at the bar, displayed 
first-rate abilities, and who was a practical patriot, the eloquent 
champion of the principles of civil and religious liberty. Richard 
Sheil, also a barrister and a distinguished orator, was likewise an 
active member of the association, which numbered in its ranks 
many other able men. In 1825, an act was passed to suppress 
the association ; but, by a dexterous evasion of the statute, the 
most important functions of the body were continued (though the 
detail of its history is not suited to our limits), and, in 1828, the 
association gained a great victory, by causing the election of 
O'Connell to the seat in the House of Commons for Clare, which 
had been vacated by Mr. Fitzgerald, on being appointed president 
of the Board of Trade. In this year the Test and Corporation 
Acts were repealed, on the motion of Lord John Russell. 

The session of 1829 opened with a speech recommending the 
settlement of the Catholic claims, and this, though the marquis 
of Anglesey, who had succeeded Lord Wellesley, had been recalled 
because he had written to the most Rev. Dr. Curtis, the Catholic 
primate, advising the continuance of the agitation. The Emanci- 
pation bill was soon brought in by ministers, and 

The bill passed. , . ■, . . n , 1 , , 

having been carried after many stormy debates, re- 
ceived the signature of the reluctant sovereign on the 13th April, 
1829. The Catholic Association had been voluntarily dissolved 
soon after the arrival in Ireland of the king's speech, which 
threatened its suppression by an act which, as it was coupled with 
the promise of emancipation, was rapidly passed. O'Connell re- 
fused, of course, to take the old oaths, and the House of Commons 
would not let him sit on taking the new ones. He was, however, 
returned for Clare without opposition, and soon entered parlia- 
ment, the doors of which his own untiring energy had opened to 
the Catholics of the United Kins;dom. 



1830 A. D.] WILLIAM THE FOURTH. 651 



The session of 1830 was marked by many angry debates, princi- 
pally on the subject of parliamentary reform. This 

f . i ii , , , . , , . Death of the king. 

topic, however, belongs to the next reign, and this 

we now approach; for, on the 26th June, 1830, the king died of 

ossification of the heart. 

George IV. possessed talent, but not virtue. His life was 
profligate, and his treatment of his wife (even before there was 
any excuse for suspicion) cruel and unkind. In power he 
abandoned the lofty principles of Fox, which he had formerly 
professed. His conduct to the Catholics was most insincere. It 
must be admitted that he had a taste for literature and the fine 
arts, and that many social improvements took place while he oc- 
cupied the throne. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

His accession to the Throne — Affairs in France— The state of Ireland — 
Death of the King— Chief events of his Reign. — From A. D. 1830 to 
1837. 

The duke of Clarence ascended the throne as William 
IV. He did not dismiss the ministers, although they were be- 
coming very unpopular and were losing much of their parliament- 
ary strength. Parliament was soon, according to constitutional 
custom, dissolved, and the usual excitement which attends a gene- 
ral election was greatly increased in consequence 
of the effect which was produced in England by 
the startling events in France. In that country the people 
had arisen against Charles X., who had issued proclamations which 
interfered with national freedom. The king was dethroned and 
proceeded to England, and afterwards to Bohemia, where after 
some years he died. The duke of Orleans was made king, and 
took the title of Louis Philippe. The details of the " Revolution 
of the Three Days" belong of course to the history of France, but 



652 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1831. 



the event exercised a marked influence on the political affairs of 
Europe. The first effect of the French Revolution on the conti- 
nent was displayed in Belgium, which separated from Holland, 
and became an independent state under King Leopold, the same 
prince who had been the husband of the princess Charlotte of 
England. 

The result of the general election of 1830 was favorable to 
ministers, and when parliament assembled in November, their un- 
popularity was still further developed in consequence of a decla- 
ration of the duke of Wellington against reform. So great was 
the excitement in London on the subject, that the king did not 
venture to go into the city to dine with the lord mayor, as fears 
were entertained of an attack on the ministers, who would, of 
course, be expected to accompany him. Shortly afterwards, 
ministers were defeated in the House of Commons, on a ques- 
tion of finance, and resigned. Earl Grey became prime minister. 
Mr. Brougham was made lord chancellor, and the other offices 
of the state were also filled by advocates of parliamentary re- 
form. After passing a bill, which appointed the duchess of 
Kent regent, should the king die before the princess Victoria 
became eighteen years of age, the parliament adjourned till Feb- 
ruary, 1831. 

It was in 1830 that the first English railway, that between 
Liverpool and Manchester, was opened. The event was hailed as 
First railway in the commencement of a new era in the commercial 
England. history of the nation ; but the ceremony of the 

opening was saddened by the accidental death of Mr. Huskisson, 
who, having incautiously placed himself in the way of one of the 
trains, was run over, and so severely injured that he died in a few 
hours. 

At this period the Poles made an attempt to shake off the yoke 
of Russia, and in the struggle which took place they gave evidence 
of possessing the most heroic courage. They were, however, 
overwhelmed by the immense armies of the emperor Nicholas. 
Many of them afterwards took refuge in England, and were 
treated with much kindness and attention. 

When parliament assembled in February, 1831, both parties 
prepared for a great struggle on the question of reform, and it so 
happened that at the same time the public mind was considerably 



1832 A. D.] WILLIAM THE FOURTH. 653 



excited by a systematic destruction of agricultural produce and 
machinery in the south of England by fire. In Agitation on the 
March, Lord John Russell introduced the Reform subject of reform. 
Bill, which disfranchised a large number of the boroughs whose 
members were returned by the influence of private individuals, 
and enfranchised several large towns which hitherto had been 
unrepresented. The tories (who now took the name of conserva- 
tives) opposed the measure with all their energies; and, after a 
very lengthened discussion, they succeeded in defeating it by a 
majority of eight. 

The ministers advised the king to dissolve parliament, which he 
accordingly did; and by this step greatly pleased the people. 
Parliament reassembled in a few weeks, when it appeared that 
the elections had added largely to the strength of the reformers. 
Ministers introduced the Reform Bill without delay; but though 
it now passed the House of Commons, it was defeated in the 
House of Lords. Popular discontent rose to a pitch of great ex- 
citement. In London the houses of Wellington and other oppo- 
nents of reform were attacked, and disturbances of a very serious 
nature took place in Derby, Nottingham, and other places. In 
Bristol, the rioters set fire to the town, and for a time overcame 
the civil and military forces, but were finally put down after many 
lives had been lost on both sides. 

Parliament having been prorogued, met again in December, 
and the bill was introduced for the third time and passed through 
the House of Commons. The Lords also read the measure 
twice, but the majority on the second reading was so small that 
ministers feared a defeat on the third reading, and prayed the 
king to create new peers. He refused, and Earl Grey resigned. 
An attempt was made to form a tory administration but without 
success, and the whigs returned to office in a few days. The king 
wrote letters to the opposition peers urging the cessation of hos- 
tility to the measure. This course prevented the necessity of 
creating peers ; the bill passed, and received the royal assent on 
the 7th June, 1832. Reform bills for Ireland and Scotland were 
also soon passed. 

In this year the cholera, having ravaged Europe, attacked the 
United Kingdom and carried off a large number of the inhabit- 
ants. It was the first time that the disease, in the Asiatic form, 

55* 



654 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1834 

had invaded England, and the greatest alarm pervaded the popu- 
lation during the prevalence of the plague, which began to disap- 
pear as the year advanced towards winter. 

In 1833, the state of Ireland occupied a large portion of pub- 
lic attention. That country had been the scenes of several dis- 
The state of ire- turbances, and many conflicts had taken place in 
laud - the attempt to continue the collection of tithes, 

which the people considered it unjust that they, being Catholics, 
should pay to the clergy of another religion. There was also at 
this period a very strong feeling displayed in favor of the repeal 
of the Union of 1800. O'Connell had organized several political 
associations, and some. state prosecutions had taken place. The 
government brought in a bill which empowered the lord lieutenant 
to place disturbed districts under martial law. The bill passed 
after many angry debates, O'Connell calling on ministers to deal 
with the Protestant church instead of suspending the constitution. 
After the Coercion Bill had passed, a measure was carried for 
lessening by ten the number of Irish Protestant bishops, and a 
million sterling was voted for the relief of those clergymen who 
had been unable to collect their tithes. 

O'Connell brought forward the subject of the repeal of the 
Union in parliament early in 1834, on which occasion a length- 
Repeal of the enc d debate took place. The motion was negatived 
Uuion - by a very large majority, and an address to the 

king in favor of the Union was adopted by parliament, with a 
pledge that measures tending to benefit Ireland would be brought 
forward. The Protestant church establishment was the next Irish 
question discussed, but ministers were divided on this subject; 
some advocated the appropriation of a portion of the revenues of 
that church to national purposes, others opposed that proposition. 
Amongst the latter were Lord Stanley, Sir James Graham, the 
duke of Richmond, and Lord Ripon, and these ministers resigned. 
The " Appropriation Clause " of a measure respecting the Irish 
church, brought forward by Mr. Ward, was, however, not supported 
by the remaining ministers until a committee should examine and 
report, and the proposition failed. 

Ministers soon found themselves in a difficulty respecting the 
renewal of the Irish Coercion Act, which had been only passed 
for one year, and their dissensions on this subject led to the re- 



1834 A. D.] WILLIAM THE FOURTH. 655 



signation of Earl Gray, Lord Althorp, and others. The tories, 
however, did not j'et come in, for a whig administration was again 
formed, of which Lord Melbourne was the head, under whom 
Lord Althorp returned to office, and a modified Coercion Bill was 
proposed and carried. 

On the 1st of August, 1834, the act which had been proposed 
and carried by Lord Stanley in 1833, having for its object the 
abolition of slavery in the British colonies, came into operation. 
Those who at that time were slaves were subjected to an appren- 
ticeship for ten years. 

In 1834 an important statute was passed on the subject of poor 
laws, by which a government commission was established in order 
to exercise a supervision over the local boards throughout the 
country. The measure also rendered it necessary for paupers to 
enter the poor-houses and put an end to the system of out-door 
relief, which had caused the poor-rates to rise in 1833 to the 
enormous amount of seven millions sterling. 

The charter of the East India Company was renewed in 1834, 
but without continuing the commercial monopoly which that com- 
pany had hitherto enjoyed. The trade to the East was conse- 
quently from this time thrown open to the entire mercantile com- 
munity. 

Both houses of parliament were destroyed by an accidental fire 
on the 16th October, 1834. It was with great difficulty that 
Westminster Hall and the Abbey were saved from the confla- 
gration. 

In November, 1834, the death of Earl Spenser caused the ele- 
vation of his son, Lord Althorp, to the House of Lords, and thus 
ministers lost their leader in the House of Commons. The king, 
whose inclinations now tended much toward the p ee i made prime 
tories, took this opportunity of informing Lord minister. 
Melbourne that he intended to call the duke of Wellington to his 
councils, as he did not feel pleased at the policy which Lord Mel- 
bourne and his colleagues were inclined to adopt, especially on 
the subjects of the Protestant church in Ireland. This step is 
generally supposed to have resulted from the advice of the queen- 
consort. The duke declined the post of premier, but advised the 
appointment of Sir Robert Peel, under whom he consented to 
take office. Sir Robert, who was then in Italy, was sent for, and 



656 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1835. 

immediately on his arrival in London formed an administration. 
Finding the majority in the House of Commons too great to cope 
with, Sir Robert advised a dissolution of parliament. 

When the legislature reassembled, ministers found that though 
they had gained some votes by the general election, they were 

Proceeding in st ^ i n a minority. The first trial of strength took 
parliament. place on the election of a speaker, when the go- 

vernment candidate was defeated. The great question of the time 
was, however, that of the Protestant church in Ireland; a subject 
to which painful interest had been imparted by a fearful event 
that had occurred in December, 1834, at Rathcormac, in the south 
of Ireland. A civil and military force attempted to enforce the 
payment of tithes due by a certain widow, whose neighbors de- 
fended her cabin. They were fired on by the soldiers, and twelve 
were killed. This melancholy circumstance greatly embittered 
the feelings of the people against tithes, and consequently against 
an administration which was opposed to any alteration in the 
Protestant church establishment. This feeling extended to par- 
liament, and accordingly an amendment on the address was car- 
ried, and ministers having been defeated in resisting a motion to 
appropriate a portion of the Irish church revenues to education, 
Sir Robert Peel and his colleagues resigned, (8th April, 1885,) 
and Lord Melbourne again became prime minister, which position 
he continued to hold for six years. 

In 1835 a measure was passed which effected considerable altera- 
tions in the English corporations, on a plan of extensive popular 

The Orange so- representation, similar to that which had already 
cieties dissolved. b een adopted by an act of 1833, relating to Scot- 
land. The Orange societies in Ireland also came under parlia- 
mentary discussion, and a committee having been appointed to 
examine the subject, it was found that these clubs were connected 
with the army, and that some members had evinced an inclination 
that the duke of Cumberland should precede the Princess Vic- 
toria in the succession. The suppression of these societies by 
law was, therefore, about to take place, but they were voluntarily 
dissolved in the beginning of 1836. Several debates took place 
on the subject of the Irish Protestant church, although, as the op- 
position was strong, no change in the law took place. Ireland, 
however, enjoyed at this period some years of repose, as Lord 



1837 A. D.] WILLIAM THE FOURTH. 657 



Mul grave, the viceroy, was of a conciliatory disposition. Catholics 
were appointed to high judicial and other public offices, and the 
people began to feel confident that extensive alterations would 
take place respecting the Protestant establishment. 

In 1836 and 1837 political excitement had much diminished 
in the United Kingdom, and ministers proposed and carried 
several statutes relating to the commutation of tithes in England 
to a payment of money based on a corn-rent charge, the marriage 
of dissenters by their own ministers, a national registry of births, 
marriages, and deaths, the reduction of the stamp duty on news- 
papers, and other important subjects. Respecting Ireland the 
principal debates arose respecting tithes, corporation reform, and 
the system of national education which had been adopted by gov- 
ernment in 1833. On these topics some very angry discussions 
took place. 

In 1837, (20th June,) the king died of ossification of the heart, 
and was succeeded by his niece, her present majesty, who as she 
had completed her eighteenth year, became sove- 

.\ ° , . J Death of the king. 

reign without any regency being necessary. 

William IV. was better suited by nature for the position of a 
private gentleman than to rule over a great empire, especially 
during a period (such as 1831-32) of political excitement. He 
possessed many good qualities, but was deficient in mental powers. 
His easy and affable manners pleased those who had intercourse 
with him, and his having been in the navy tended in no small 
degree to increase his popularity with the people. Queen Ade- 
laide, by whom he had no issue, survived the king some years. 

During the reigns of George IV. and William IV. the public 
mind tended more to the development of social improvements 
than to great literary achievements. Scott, who Events of his 
died in 1832, held the first place as a writer, but rei s n - 
his beautiful productions were unfortunately defaced by much 
bitterness toward the Catholic religion. Moore continued to write 
much, but he had already produced his greatest works. Several 
other distinguished authors adorned this period, for whose names 
the student is referred to our literary chapter. Periodical litera- 
ture acquired great popularity at this period, the best writers 
contributing to the current publications. The London University 
was established in 1825. In all the departments of practical 



658 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1837 



knowledge great progress was made, and, both on land and sea, 
locomotion by steam was rapidly superseding former modes of 
travelling. 

During the reign of William IV. the continent was mucb dis- 
turbed, but as England avoided foreign war, the disputes through- 
out Europe do not call for a detailed notice at our hands. It will 
be well, however, to glance at the leading points. 

France, after the revolution of 1830, was for a long time the 
scene of civil commotions, partly arising from the attempt of the 
duchess de Berri to obtain the crown for her son, the grandchild 
of Charles X., and partly from the discontent of the republican 
party, who could not but feel, as they beheld Louis Philippe assum- 
ing very large powers, that as far as their principles were con- 
cerned, the blood which flowed during the " three days " had 
been shed in vain. Several attempts were made to assassinate 
the king of the French, but they were unsuccessful, and those 
who made these attempts were put to death. 

Spain was the theatre of a fierce contest between Isabella, 

daughter of Ferdinand VII. who died in 1833, and Don Carlos, 

the nearest male heir to the throne, who would have 

Contest in Spain. . ' . 

been king had not the banc law, which excluded 
females from the throne, been repealed, as it had recently been 
by Ferdinand. England sent no army to either party, but per- 
mitted private individuals as such to take part in the contest, and 
accordingly a force called the British Legion was equipped and 
fought on the side of Donna Isabella, under the command of 
Col. De Lacy Evans. The war continued for some years, and 
ended in the defeat of Don Carlos. 

In Portugal, civil war raged between Don Pedro's daughter, 
Donna Maria (in whose favor her father had abdicated), and Don 
Miguel, her uncle, who had usurped the throne. Admiral Na- 
pier, who was allowed by the English government to command 
Donna Maria's fleet, overcame that of Don Miguel, in July, 1833, 
and shortly afterwards Donna Maria was proclaimed queen. The 
war, however, continued on land till 1834, when Don Miguel was 
defeated and expelled from Portugal. 

No other events occurred on the continent in which the people 
of the United Kingdom took any important part. 



1837 A. L\] QUEEN VICTORIA. 659 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

(Queen ffldaxw. 

The accession of the Queen — Her marriage and coronation — War in the 
East Indies — Famine in Ireland — Literature. 

The princess Alexandria Victoria, daughter of the duke of 
Kent, and, therefore, grand-daughter of George III. succeeded to 
the throne at the death of William IV. on the 20th June, 1837. 
It is not our intention to enter into any detailed narrative of the 
events of her majesty's reign, but simply to glance at the leading 
historical facts. 

The coronation of her majesty took place with great splendor 
on the 28th June, 1838. Her majesty was married on the 10th 
February, 1840, to her cousin, Prince Albert of Coronation and 
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. There are eight children of Queen." 
this marriage, of whom the eldest son, Albert Edward, prince of 
Wales, born 9th November, 1841, is heir to the throne. 

During the seventeen years which have now elapsed of her 
majesty's reign, England has not been at war with any European 
state until the present year, in which hostilities have commenced 
against Russia for encroachments on Turkey. Large armies and 
fleets have been sent out by England and by France. The first 
important action between the allies and the Russians took place 
at Alma in the Crimea (a peninsula in the north-east of the Black 
Sea), on the 20th September, in which the Russians were de- 
feated, but not until the allies had suffered severely. 

In the East Indies, England was engaged in war with some of 
the native races, and much loss of life took place both in the con- 
test with the Affghans, whom the late Sir Charles warm the East 
Napier defeated, and also in the two struggles Indies - 
(1846 and 1 849 > against the Sikhs, over whom Lord Gough and 
Lord Hardinge, in 1846, and Lord Gough, singly, in 1849, ob 



660 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A. D. 1846 



tained the notable victories which have connected the history of 
our army with the hard-won fields of Moodkee, Feroshah, Aliwal, 
Sobraon, and Goojerat. India has been tranquil for some years. 

In 1840, England joined several of the European powers in as- 
sisting Turkey against Mehemet Ali, the Turkish viceroy in 
Egypt. Admirals Napier and Stopford added fresh glory to our 
navy in this war, at Acre, on the coast of Syria. An arrangement 
between the sultan and Mehemet Ali soon took place, and peace 
ensued. 

In the internal affairs of these countries the leading facts have 
been the struggle for the reform of corporations in Ireland, ter- 
Leading events minating [ n 1840; the agitation, under O'Connell, 
of this period. f or |} ie re p ea l f the Legislative Union ; the Irish 
State Trials of 1844, the repeal of the Corn Laws, in 1846; the 
disturbed state of the public mind both in England and Ireland, 
consequent on the French Revolution of 1848 ; and the restora- 
tion of the English Catholic Hierarchy, in 1850, which led to the 
enactment of the Ecclesiastical Titles' Act of 1851, forbidding 
any except Protestant prelates to assume territorial titles as 
bishops. Political parties have been rather evenly balanced since 
her majesty's accession. Lord Melbourne (whig) remained in 
office till 1841. Sir Robert Peel (conservative) was minister 
from 1841 to 1846. Lord John Russell (whig) was in power 
from 1846 to 1852. Lord Derby (extreme tory) next held the 
reins for a short time, but was obliged to yield to the combined 
forces of whigs and moderate conservatives who, under Lord 
Aberdeen, form the present coalition administration. Several 
public characters have died during her majesty's reign, of whom 
the most distinguished were Daniel O'Connell, who died at Genoa 
in 1847, Sir Robert Peel, who died in London in 1850, and the 
duke of Wellington, who died at Walmer Castle in 1852. 

The famine in Ireland, which, commencing with the partial loss 
of the potato crop in 1845, increased fearfully in 1846, and spread 
Famine in ire- sucu m i ser y throughout that country, and which 
land - (combined with emigration) threw back the popu- 

lation more than two millions, is the gloomiest chapter in the 
annals of the present reign. During the last few years, however, 
the condition of Ireland has been improving. The Incumbered 
Estates Act has transferred a large portion of the land from those 



1854 A. D.] QUEEN VICTORIA. 661 



who had not the power to improve it to those who have. The 
competition for small holdings, which often led to such fearful 
crimes, has diminished. A better mode of agriculture has gained 
ground ; and the soil, fertile by nature, has been rendered even 
more productive by skill. 

In literature, her majesty's reign has not yet added any very 
distinguished name to the roll of classical authors. Books have 
indeed been published in great number, and nearly 
every department of letters has been respectably 
represented. In history the most voluminous author has been 
Alison, whose work, "Europe from 1789 to 1815," has been 
much and deservedly admired. It is, however, a good deal dis- 
figured by sectarian partiality. Macaulay's History, being in- 
complete, ought not yet to be judged; the style is beautiful, but 
there will be much to amend in future volumes before the work 
can be accepted (especially by Catholics) as an accurate delineation 
of the period described. Works of fiction have poured from the 
press by the thousand each year, but very few standard novels 
have been produced. Several poetical volumes of considerable 
merit have appeared, but the sublimity of a Byron, the gorgeous 
brilliancy of a Moore, or the terse vigor of a Campbell have not as 
yet adorned the poetry of Victoria's reign. 

In all the arrangements of social life there has been great pro- 
gress. The Exhibition of 1851 in London and that which the 
liberality of Mr. Dargan originated in Ireland, in Social improve- 
1853, gave great impetus to manufacturing indus- and Ireland, 
try. Science has won great victories. The Electric Telegraph 
conveys intelligence hundred of miles in a few seconds. Popular 
education has spread extensively, and literary societies have 
arisen among the people in all directions, the success of which 
was considerably increased by the Temperance movement, which 
especially in Ireland under Father Matthew, made such progress. 
The reduction of postage in 1840 to one penny, also exercised a 
most important effect on education. In 1845, Sir Kobert Peel 
established three new colleges in Ireland, but as their system was 
condemed by the pope and the Catholic bishops, a new collegiate 
institution, " The Catholic University of Ireland" has been 
founded by subscriptions among Catholics, and is now commenc- 

56 



662 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



[A. D. 1854. 



ing a career which will, no doubt, advance the interests of Catho- 
licity, and increase the diffusion of sound literature. 

Let us, in conclusion, hope that the Kussian ambition being 
soon effectually checked, peace based on just and honorable terms 
may soon return, and that the sword being sheathed, and the can- 
non silent, the people may go forward to win those social tri- 
umphs which bring no sorrow in their train, and which, if less 
dazzling, are more enduring than the most brilliant achievements 
of arms. 




MN 271949 






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